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HAROLD  B.  LEE  LIBRARY 

BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 

PROVO,  UTAH 


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3Sp  aitce  JW*  38acon. 


JAPANESE     GIRLS     AND     WOMEN. 
i6mo,  $1.25. 

A  JAPANESE    INTERIOR.      i6mo,  $1.25. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 

Boston  and  New  York. 


A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR 


BY 


ALICE  MABEL  BACON 

AUTHOR  OF   "JAPANESE   GIRLS  AND   WOMEN 


BOSTON    AND    NEW    YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 

1893 


HAROLD  B.  LEE  LIBRARY 

BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 

PROVO,  UTAH 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  ALICE  MABEL  BACON. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Co. 


To 
MY   BROTHERS    AND   SISTERS 

FOR   WHOM    THESE    LETTERS  WERE    ORIGINALLY   WRITTEN 

THIS    PRINTED   VOLUME 

IS   AFFECTIONATELY    INSCRIBED. 


PREFACE. 

The  letters  presented  to  the  public  in 
this  book  were  written  during  an  experi- 
ence of  life  in  Japan  somewhat  different 
from  that  of  the  average  foreign  resident 
in  the  East.  The  author's  call  to  the 
Orient  came  to  her  from  one  of  the  most 
conservative  aud  anti-foreign  of  the  Tokyo 
schools,  —  a  school  for  noble  girls,  under 
the  management  of  the  Imperial  House- 
hold Department.  The  invitation  was  sent 
to  her  through  a  Japanese  friend,  who  had 
been  the  teacher  of  English  in  the  school 
since  its  foundation,  for  no  foreigner's 
recommendation  would  have  had  much 
weight  with  the  conservative  and  cultivated 
Japanese  in  charge  of  the  institution. 
Work  in  such  a  school  naturally  brings  a 
teacher  into  close  contact  with  the  most 


VI  PBEFACE. 

refined  and  cultivated  of  Japanese  women, 
and  cannot  fail  to  give  to  those  who  per- 
form it  a  new  sympathy  with  a  class  usu- 
ally but  little  understood. 

Upon  my  arrival  in  Tokyo  in  June,  1888, 
I  found  myself  greeted  by  Japanese  friends, 
known  long  and  intimately  in  America,  but 
from  whom  I  had  been  separated  for  years. 
Their  friendship  had,  however,  stood  well 
the  strain  of  the  long  separation  both  by 
time  and  space.  In  all  that  great  city  I 
had  no  acquaintance  of  my  own  race  and 
language,  but  my  Japanese  friends  so  cared 
for  me  and  surrounded  me  by  their  kind- 
ness, that  instead  of  missing  the  society  of 
my  own  people,  I  found  its  absence  a  posi- 
tive advantage,  in  that  it  threw  me  entirely 
upon  congenial  and  interesting  Japanese 
friends  for  that  social  intercourse  necessary 
for  all  civilized  beings. 

Journeys  over  the  beaten  tracks  of  tour- 
ist travel  during  the  summer  of  1888 
brought  me  in  contact  with  many  charm- 
ing and  interesting  American  and  English 


PREFACE.  vil 

people,  acquaintances  kept  up  during  my 
stay  in  Japan ;  but  my  home  and  life 
while  in  Tokyo  was  among  the  Japanese, 
the  excursions  made  into  the  foreign  world 
forming  merely  agreeable  and  unusual  in- 
cidents. 

My  home  in  Tokyo  was  a  house  —  half 
Japanese  and  half  foreign  —  on  a  little 
hill  in  the  Kojimachi  district,  the  central 
district  of  the  city.  Above  our  house  on 
the  hill  ran  a  great  business  street,  where 
the  influence  of  foreign  ideas  was  as  yet 
but  little  felt,  and  along  which  many  of 
our  most  interesting  walks  were  taken.  A 
short  walk  in  another  direction  led  past 
the  old-fashioned  palace  of  Prince  Fushimi, 
over  a  great  moat,  and  up  to  the  gates  of 
the  Akasaka  Palace,  the  residence  of  the 
Emperor  until  the  year  1889.  Out  from 
this  palace  gate  the  Empress,  attended  by 
her  ladies,  used  to  walk  to  visit  her  pet  in- 
stitution, the  Peeresses'  School,  so  near  did 
it  stand  to  the  palace  in  closure.  At  about 
the  same  distance  on  the  other  side  of  us 


viii  PREFACE. 

stood  the  fine  modern  residence  of  Prince 
Kitashirakawa,  and  a  little  further  pro- 
longation of  the  walk  carried  one  into  the 
region  occupied  by  the  foreign  legations 
and  the  official  residences  of  the  Cabinet 
Ministers,  and  up  to  the  moat  that  encir- 
cles the  heart  of  the  city,  —  the  ancient 
castle  of  the  Shogun,  within  whose  mighty 
ramparts  stands  the  new  Imperial  Palace. 

Within  our  house,  my  part,  built  as  the 
Japanese  are  pleased  to  call  it  in  "  foreign 
style,55  —  that  is,  with  two  stories,  glass 
windows,  swing  doors,  and  a  hole  in  the 
wall  for  the  stovepipe  to  go  through, — 
contained  two  rooms  and  a  front  entry,  and 
was  furnished  after  the  manner  common 
to  American  houses.  This  was  connected 
with  the  purely  Japanese  part  of  the  man- 
sion by  the  engawa,  a  polished-wood-floored 
piazza,  roofed  by  the  overhanging  eaves, 
and  shut  in  at  night  by  the  solid  sliding 
shutters  or  amado,  so  as  to  form  a  corridor 
along  the  garden  side  of  the  house. 

The   front  was   provided  with  two   en- 


PREFACE.  IX 

trances,  —  one  into  the  foreign  rooms, 
within  which  shoes  might  come,  and  one 
into  the  Japanese  rooms  by  means  of  a  lit- 
tle vestibule  with  low,  latticed  gate,  where 
clogs  must  be  laid  aside  before  stepping 
upon  the  soft,  white  mats  which  form,  not 
floor-covering  only,  but  chairs,  tables,  and 
spring  mattresses  as  well  in  a  Japanese 
home.  My  paper- wralled  dining-room,  my 
only  Japanese  room,  projected  from  the 
front  of  the  house  between  these  two  en- 
trances, and  from  it,  as  I  took  my  solitary 
meals  in  "  foreign  style/5  accompanied  by 
all  the  formalities  of  table,  chairs,  and 
knives  and  forks,  I  could  hear  the  cheerful 
bustle  that  seemed  always  to  hover  about 
the  Japanese  entrance.  Here  was  the 
place  for  the  putting  on  of  shoes,  as  in 
cumbersome  foreign  dress  our  family  took 
their  early  start  for  school.  At  this  place 
bows  and  saio  naras  were  exchanged  on  the 
part  of  all  in  the  house  whenever  one  mem- 
ber of  the  family  went  away  on  so  much 
as  a  shopping  expedition  ;  here,  too,  sounded 


X  PBEFACE. 

the  cheerful  "Okaeri,"  that  announced  the 
return  of  one  of  the  occupants  of  the 
house,  the  breathless  "  0  kyaku  "  shouted 
by  the  kurumaya  of  the  coming  guest  so 
soon  as  he  was  within  the  gate,  or  the 
deprecating  "  Go  men  nasai,"  with  which 
an  applicant  for  admission  made  known 
his  presence. 

One  kitchen  sufficed  for  our  family,  but 
two  cooks  and  two  stoves  were  necessary 
for  our  double  household.  My  own  cook, 
upon  a  stove  of  foreign  manufacture,  pre- 
pared my  food  after  the  foreign  manner, 
while  the  little  gozen  taki  with  her  Jap- 
anese stove,  aided  by  numerous  shichi  rin, 
did  the  cooking  for  the  rest  of  the  family. 
Outside  of  the  kitchen  were  the  servants' 
quarters,  and  near  the  back  gate  stood  a 
small  stable  with  a  three-mat  room,  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  groom  and  his 
family. 

Toward  the  garden,  the  house  formed 
two  sides  of  a  square,  along  which  ran  the 
engawa  connecting  foreign  and  Japanese 


PREFACE.  XI 

buildings.  A  step  out  of  my  long  window 
and  down  this  shining  piazza  brought  me 
into  the  very  heart  of  a  Japanese  home. 
Here  the  family  gathered  about  the  hibachi 
of  a  cold  day  or  in  the  winter  evenings. 
Here  they  sat  on  the  floor  and  sewed, 
constructing  kimono,  obi,  haori,  and  other 
graceful  and  dainty  garments  with  paper 
thimble,  a  long  needle  upon  which  the 
cloth  is  run,  and  an  endless  thread,  cut  off 
from  the  reel  only  when  the  seam  is  fin- 
ished. Here  they  told  stories,  exchanged 
ideas,  studied  lessons,  and  accorded  warm- 
est welcome  at  all  times  to  the  foreigner 
attracted  thither  by  the  life  and  interest 
that  seemed  always  about  the  rooms. 

On  sunny  days,  the  little  garden,  with 
its  pine-tree,  its  cherry  and  plum  trees,  its 
camelia  hedge,  its  stone  lantern,  and  its 
perennial  succession  of  flowers,  was  our 
common  playground.  Here  we  all  laughed 
together  over  my  first  attempts  with  Jap- 
anese clogs  and  the  Japanese  language; 
here  my  American  collie  chased  their  tail- 


Xll  PREFACE. 

less  Japanese  cat,  to  the  never  -  failing 
amusement  of  all  parties  concerned ;  here 
was  the  centre,  perhaps,  of  our  home  life 
in  all  but  the  worst  weather.  Was  I 
lonely?  Into  the  garden  I  went,  and 
straightway  from  some  room  of  the  Jap- 
anese house  a  bright-eyed  little  friend 
would  make  her  way  out  to  join  me,  and 
soon  another,  and  then  another  would  step 
down  from  the  engawa  into  her  waiting 
clogs,  and  then  a  game,  or  a  run,  or  a  new 
flower,  or  something  of  absorbing  interest 
would  engross  us  all. 

Our  household  was  composed  entirely  of 
women,  —  three  of  us  teachers  in  the  Peer- 
esses5 School,  three  pupils  in  the  same 
institution,  and  two  young  girls  living 
in  the  family  for  the  sake  of  the  culture, 
especially  in  English,  to  be  derived  from 
such  society.  These,  with  the  servants 
needed  for  the  establishment,  my  dog,  and 
the  two  cats,  made  up  a  congenial  company. 

Such  were  the  surroundings  amid  which 
most  of  these  letters  were  written.    What- 


PREFACE.  xill 

ever  views  they  may  give  of  Japanese  life 
were  obtained  from  the  Japanese  side,  and 
from  the  side  of  the  Japanese  woman,  al- 
though undoubtedly  much  affected  by  pass- 
ing through  the  medium  of  an  American 
mind.  The  letters  do  not  lay  claim  to 
deep  research  or  wide  knowledge  of  all 
subjects  touched  upon  by  them.  They  are 
simply  a  daily  chronicle  of  events,  sights, 
and  impressions.  They  have  the  character 
of  the  product  of  a  photographic  camera 
rather  than  of  an  artist's  brush.  What- 
ever theories  are  advanced  are  put  forward 
as  the  material  from  which  thought  may 
be  made,  and  not  as  the  result  of  mature 
deliberation.  The  book  is  more  a  pic- 
ture of  the  life  of  one  foreigner  among  the 
Japanese,  and  a  record  of  her  thoughts 
about  their  civilization  and  her  own,  than 
it  is  an  authority  on  Japan  in  general,  or 
on  any  particular  phase  of  life  there. 

To  all  my  Japanese  friends  my  thanks 
are  due  for  whatever  I  have  seen  or  known 
or  enjoyed  in  their  country,  and  if  through 


xiv  PREFACE. 

lack  of  tact  or  wisdom  or  literary  skill 
anything  has  found  a  place  in  this  volume 
that  their  clearer  judgment  would  have 
left  unpublished,  pardon  is  asked  now  for 
all  offenses.  My  thought  throughout  the 
work  of  editing  these  letters  has  been  to 
preserve,  so  far  as  possible,  without  violat- 
ing confidence,  or  that  sweet  seclusion  that 
is  so  characteristic  a  feature  of  Japanese 
home  life,  the  little  touches  of  nature  that 
make  the  whole  world  kin,  and  bring  into 
one  human  brotherhood  all  races  under 
heaven. 


CONTENTS, 


I. 

Tokyo,  September  5  to  26. 

Going"  to  Housekeeping.  —  An  Evening  Walk.  — 
Fireworks  and  Rochester  Lamps.  —  A  Foreign  Res- 
taurant. —  Shopping  at  the  Kwan-ko-ba.  —  Settling 
Accounts. —  Introduction  to  the  Peeresses. —  School 
Routine.  —  Story  of  Boy  and  Crab.  —  Jinrikisha 
Riding.  —  The  Climate   ....     - 1 

II. 

October  1  to  15. 

A  Sunday  Visit.  —  "  Bot'  Chan."  —  Preparations  for 
a  Horse.  —  The  Peeresses'  English  Society.  —  To- 
kyo from  a  Horse's  Back.  —  English  as  a  Dead 
Language.  —  Dawn.  —  A  Sunday-School  Class.  — 
Mr.  Kozaki.  —  Difficulties  with  the  Kana.  —  Bruce 
and  the  Betto.  —  Lecture  on  Bandai  San.  —  Prince 
Haru.  —  Difficulties  in  Church-Going.  —  A  Japan- 
ese Meal 19 

III. 

October  21  to  November  4. 

Mr.  Kozaki's  Church.  —  Introduction  to  Bible  Class. 
—  Reception    Days.  —  A    Hibachi.  —  Two    Old 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

Ladies.  —  My  Paper  Dining-Room.  —  Funeral 
Fashions.  —  An  Official  Funeral.  —  Simplicity  of 
Japanese  Living*.  —  Posthumous  Titles.  —  The 
Emperor's  Birthday 33 

IV. 

November  12  to  14. 

A  No  Performance.  —  Death  of  Prince  Aki.  — 
Dango  Zaka 59 

V. 

November  25  to  December  18. 

A  Ball  at  the  Rokumei-kwan.  —  A  Tokyo  Story.  — 
Bot'  Chan's  Studies  in  Physiognomy.  —  Thanks- 
giving and  Turkey.  —  Christmas  Carols.  —  Fuji- 
Yama.  —  The  New  Palace.  —  Tokyo  Moats.  — 
Bowing  to  Prince  Haru 77 

VI. 

December  27  to  January  6. 

Christmas  Preparations.  —  Hanging  Stockings.  — 
English  Service.  —  A  Church  Festival.  —  New 
Year's  Decorations.  — New  Year's  Eve  on  Ginza. 
—  A  Street  Fight.  —  New  Year's  Day.  —  Street 
Performers.  —  An  Earthquake.  —  Kurumayas  in 
Cold  Weather 91 

VII. 

January  13  to  30. 

Discharging  a  Groom.  —  The  New  Kurumaya.  —  The 
Emperor's  Moving-Day.  —  A  New  Year's  Lunch. 


CONTENTS.  xvii 

—  Buying  a  Kuruma.  —  A  New  Horse.  —  The 
Japanese  Language.  —  The  Promulgation  of  the 
Constitution.  —  Tombs  of  the  Loyal  Konin    .     .     .110 

VIII. 
February  12  to  20. 

The  Promulgation  Festival.  —  Morning  Scenes  on 
Kojimachi.  —  Exercises  at  the  School.  —  Imperial 
Progress  through  Tokyo  Streets.  —  Evening  Rides 
and  Street  Sights.  —  Rice  and  Eels.  —  Mingling 
with  the  Holiday  Crowd.  —  Murder  of  Viscount 
Mori.  —  Viscount  Mori's  Funeral.  —  Religious 
Liberty  under  the  Constitution.  —  Another  Earth- 
quake        129 

IX. 

March  1  to  9. 

The  Wily  Betto.  —  Yasaku's  Domestic  Affairs.  — 
Marriage  and  Divorce.  —  Developments  in  Regard 
to  the  Mori  Murder.  —  Letters  from  Nishino  to  his 
Family.  —  A  Spring  Jaunt.  —  Toy  Collecting    .     .  147 

X. 

March  21  to  31. 

A  Sad  Holiday.  —  Japanese  Mourning  Customs.  — 
A  Shinto  Funeral.  —  An  Earthquake.  —  Yasaku's 
Wedding.  —  Questions  on  John's  Gospel  .     .     .     .161 

XI. 

April  6  to  14. 

A  Country  Walk.  —  Feast  of  Dolls  at  a  Daimio's 
Yashiki.  —  Picnic  at  Mito  Yashiki.  —  A  Day  at 
the  Theatre. — Japanese  Acting 174 


xvill  CONTENTS. 

XII. 
April  19  to  May  2. 

The  Empress'  Visit.  —  Presentation  to  the  Empress. 

—  A    Buddhist    Funeral.  —  A   Garden  Party.  — 
Questions  on  John's  Gospel 189 

XIII. 

May  8  to  June  22. 

Summer  Weather.  —  A  Matsuri.  —  Early  School.  — 
Perry  Expedition  Reports.  —  Bible  Class  of 
School-Girls.  —  Fighting  Fleas.  —  Japanese  Ser- 
vants. — The  New  School-Building.  —  The  Peer- 
esses' Literary  Society.  —  A  Speech  by  Mr.  Knapp. 

—  Scandal 204 

XIV. 

June  29  to  July  24. 

School- Building  Trouble  settled.  —  A  Japanese 
Baby.  —  Shopping.  —  Japanese  Taste.  —  Facts 
and  Theories.  —  Calls  from  Drs.  Brooks  and  Mc- 
Vickar.  —  Packing  in  Wet  Weather.  —  Farewell 
Presents.  —  Graduating  Exercises.  —  Near  View 
of  the  Empress.  —  Correcting  Proof  under  Diffi- 
culties        223 

XV. 
Hiyei  Zan,  July  31,  to  Numadzu,  August  28. 

View  from  HiyeH  Zan.  —  The  Mission  Camp.  — 
Last  Days  in  Tokyo.  —  Voyage  to  Kobe*.  —  From 


CONTENTS.  xix 

Kobe*  to  Hiy^i.  —  Historical  Interest  of  Hiyel.  — 
Pleasant  Weather  and  Walks.  —  A  Young  Bud- 
dhist. —  Some  Effects  of  the  Summer  Camp.  — 
Benkei's  Relics. —  The  "Hiy&  Zan  Hornet."  — 
Shopping  in  Kioto.  —  The  River  at  Night.  —  Illu- 
mination   of    the    Mountains.  —  A    Snake    Story. 

—  Traveling  in  Japanese  Style.  —  Start  in  a  Ty- 
phoon. —  Nagoya.  —  A  Wayside  Inn.  —  Okazaki. 

—  Weak  Kurumayas.  —  An  Unpleasant  Hotel. 
Okitsu.  —  End  of  the  Journey.  —  Numadzu.  — 
Children's  Visits.  —  Slow  Freight.  —  Plans  for 
Home 239 


A  JAPANESE  nsTTERIOB. 


CHAPTER  I. 
September  5  to  26. 

Going  to   Housekeeping*.  —  An    Evening  Walk.  —  Fire- 
works and  Rochester  Lamps.  —  A  Foreign  Restaurant. 

—  Shopping  at  the  Kwan-ko-ba.  —  Settling  Accounts. 

—  Introduction  to  the  Peeresses.  —  School  Routine.  — 
Story  of  Boy  and  Crab.  —  Jinrikisha  Riding.  —  The 
Climate. 

Kioi  Cho,  Tokyo, 
Wednesday,  September  5,  1888. 

I  came  down  from  Nikko  on  Monday, 
alone.  My  new  cook  met  me,  and  brought 
me  and  the  few  worldly  goods  I  had  with 
me  safely  up  to  my  new  house.  He  seems 
anxious  to  do  what  I  want  and  willing  to 
turn  his  hand  to  anything,  but  as  he  does 
not  know  any  English  and  I  know  very  lit- 
tle Japanese,  it  is  sometimes  hard  for  him 
to  grasp  my  idea.  Mine  has  to  do  a  good 
deal  of  work  at  present  as  an  interpreter, 
but  I  hope  soon  to  be  able  to  give  orders 


2  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

myself  to  my  servants  in  their  own  lan- 
guage. 

I  find  that  the  business  of  getting  set- 
tled in  Japan  involves  a  good  deal  of  sitting 
still  and  waiting  for  people  to  do  things. 
Just  now,  I  am  having  an  enforced  rest, 
for  my  cook  has  gone  off,  leaving  word  that 
he  is  sick.  Mine  is  away,  so  that  I  can- 
not do  some  shopping  that  I  wish  to ;  all 
my  trunks  are  unpacked  and  my  clothes 
put  away,  and  there  is  absolutely  nothing 
that  I  can  do,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  there 
is  a  great  deal  to  be  accomplished. 

Last  evening,  Mine  and  her  train  of 
girls  who  live  in  the  house  took  me  out 
to  walk  and  do  some  errands.  We  walked 
along  a  broad  street  with  lighted  shops  on 
both  sides,  along  which  a  great  concourse 
of  people  were  moving  up  and  down,  with 
no  end  in  view,  I  imagine,  except  to  enjoy 
the  coolness  of  the  evening  after  an  exces- 
sively hot  day.  Here  and  there  on  mats 
laid  on  the  ground,  or  in  little  booths,  were 
spread  out  the  wares  of  some  enterpris- 
ing peddler, — sometimes  a  stock  of  fruit, 
sometimes  a  great  display  of  wooden  ware, 
sometimes  a  traveling  restaurant,  with 
curious  concoctions  of  rice,  fish,  seaweed, 


AN  EVENING  WALK.  3 

etc.,  to  tempt  the  appetite  of  the  hungry 
pedestrian.  One  booth  was  filled  with 
minute  cages,  from  which  proceeded  a  tre- 
mendous chirping,  produced  by  various 
kinds  of  singing  insects,  —  crickets,  katy- 
dids, grasshoppers,  etc.  All  up  and  down 
the  street  there  was  a  glare  of  small  kero- 
sene torches,  like  those  used  in  torchlight 
processions  at  home,  only  smaller.  These 
served  to  light  each  dealer's  display  pretty 
well.  At  one  place  where  we  stopped  to 
inquire  the  price  of  melons,  Bruce  caught 
sight  of  a  cat  prowling  about,  and  made 
a  rush  at  it  with  such  good  effect  that  the 
cat  sprang  into  the  middle  of  our  fruit 
vender's  stock-in-trade,  hitting  one  of  his 
torches  and  throwing  it  over.  Luckily, 
watermelons  are  not  inflammable,  so  no 
harm  was  done,  though  the  torch  lay  on  its 
side  for  some  time,  burning  merrily,  be- 
fore it  was  picked  up.  After  this  adven- 
ture, Bruce  walked  along  ignominiously  at 
the  end  of  a  strap  during  the  remainder  of 
our  expedition.  Whenever  we  stopped  to 
make  a  purchase,  a  crowd  gathered  and 
watched  our  doings  most  intently.  Appar- 
ently, a  foreign  lady  with  a  dog  shopping 
at  that  time   of  night  is  not  a  common 


4  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

sight  in  this  part  of  the  city,  and  we  began 
to  feel  very  much  like  a  traveling  show  as 
audience  after  audience  gathered  around 
us,  to  disperse  again  when  we  moved  on. 

When  we  returned  from  our  walk,  I  went 
into  Mine's  part  of  the  house,  and  we  had 
a  queer  little  feast.  First  Mine  handed 
around  some  beans,  roasted  in  a  corn- 
popper  as  we  do  chestnuts.  They  were 
very  nice,  except  that  after  a  while  they 
seemed  rather  choky.  Then  I  offered  the 
company  some  candy  that  I  had  bought 
at  one  of  the  booths,  a  kind  of  jelly,  as 
clear  as  glass,  coated  with  sugar.  Then 
we  topped  off  with  a  glass  of  raspberry 
vinegar  all  around.  This  proved  to  be  an 
entire  novelty  to  Mine's  Japanese  friends, 
and  they  were  delighted  with  it.  To  end 
our  exciting  evening,  the  girls  set  off  some 
fireworks.  First  they  tried  some  of  the 
little  Japanese  parlor  fireworks  that  we 
see  in  America,  and  these  were  very  pretty 
and  went  off  successfully.  Then  one  of 
the  girls  lighted  something  of  the  rocket 
or  Roman  candle  species,  that  fired  balls 
from  a  stick  set  in  the  ground.  But  this 
was  rather  a  failure,  for  Bruce  decided  that 
it  was  a  dangerous  weapon,  and  as  soon  as 


A  FOBEIGN  BESTAURANT.  5 

it  began  to  go  he  made  a  rush  at  it  and 
bit  the  lighted  end  off,  setting  the  hair  on 
his  chin  and  around  his  neck  in  a  blaze, 
but  entirely  discouraging  the  rocket.  He 
then  came  back,  singed  but  happy,  and 
quite  sure  that  he  had  rescued  us  from  a 
great  danger.  After  this  excitement,  the 
whole  family  came  with  me  to  my  parlor, 
to  see  the  new  Rochester  lamp  which  I 
had  just  had  hung.  They  were  much  im- 
pressed by  the  magnificent  light  that  it 
gave,  and  Mine's  cousin,  a  dear  little 
sweet -faced  widow,  the  chaperon  of  our 
establishment,  poetically  remarked  that 
my  lamp  was  like  the  sun,  and  theirs  was 
like  a  little  star. 

September  7. 

You  would  be  amused  to  see  the  manner 
in  which  I  am  greeted  at  the  little  restau- 
rant where  Bruce  and  I  are  now  taking 
our  dinners.  My  affairs  are  so  far  settled 
that  my  cook  is  able  to  achieve  a  simple 
breakfast  in  the  house,  but  we  have  not  at- 
tempted dinner,  so  I  take  it  every  evening 
at  the  little  foreign  restaurant  around  the 
corner.  I  tie  Bruce  in  the  yard  before  I 
go  in,  and  this  stop  gives  time  for  the 
whole  force  of  the  house  to  assemble  in  the 


6  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

entry,  where  they  draw  up  in  line,  and  sa- 
lute me  as  I  pass  with  the  lowest  and  most 
graceful  of  bows.  The  tail  end  of  the  line 
consists  of  two  small  boys,  just  the  same 
size  and  dressed  exactly  alike,  who  look  as  if 
they  could  not  be  more  than  ten  years  old, 
they  are  so  small  and  have  such  baby  faces, 
but  thev  make  as  elaborate  and  beautiful 
bows  as  if  they  were  dancing-masters. 

September  8. 

Yesterday  I  made  a  visit  to  the  Kwan- 
ko-ba  at  Shiba  to  buy  the  china  necessary 
for  my  housekeeping.  This  big  bazaar  is 
a  very  interesting  place,  because  there  you 
can  find  under  one  roof  an  epitome  of 
everything  that  Japan  makes  or  wants,  to 
wear  or  to  use  about  the  house.  The 
Shiba  Kwan-ko-ba  is  the  largest  in  Tokyo, 
and  has  a  great  many  different  stalls  kept 
by  independent  tradesmen.  The  advan- 
tage of  the  place  to  inexperienced  persons 
like  myself  is  that  everything  has  its  price 
fixed  and  plainly  marked  upon  it  accord- 
ing to  its  quality,  so  that  there  is  no  dan- 
ger of  being  overcharged  or  cheated.  Here 
I  bought,  for  the  moderate  sum  of  ten 
yen,  all  the  china  that  I  can  use  at  my 


SETTLING  ACCOUNTS.  7 

small  table,  and  all  pretty  and  dainty  iu 
design  and  finish,  so  that  I  am  now  ready 
to  begin  my  housekeeping,  if  I  can  make 
my  cook  understand  that  I  wish  him  to  or- 
der the  necessary  supplies  from  the  grocer. 

September  10. 

To-night  I  had  my  first  settling  of  ac- 
counts with  my  cook,  a  function  that  had 
to  be  conducted  largely  with  the  aid  of  a 
dictionary.  My  man  squatted  on  the  floor 
in  front  of  me,  and  took  out  from  the  folds 
of  his  gown  a  queer  little  account-book,  in 
which  he  had  written  some  hieroglyphics 
that  he  found  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in 
deciphering.  With  many  suckings  in  of 
the  breath,  he  would  enunciate  as  clearly 
and  loudly  as  possible  the  Japanese  word 
for  the  thing  purchased,  and  if  I  did  not 
know  what  it  was,  I  had  to  look  it  up  in 
the  dictionary  before  we  could  go  farther. 
Then  came  the  price  in  Japanese,  which 
after  my  summer  of  shopping  and  traveling 
presented  no  difficulties  to  me,  and  then 
both  purchase  and  price  must  be  trans- 
ferred to  my  account-book.  We  spent  a 
long  time  over  one  word,  which  he  pro- 
nounced as  if  it  were  spelled  "  tabu,"  so  I 


8  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

looked  it  up  in  my  dictionary,  and  was  in 
despair  when  I  could  find  no  such  word, 
until  suddenly  it  came  over  me  that  he 
was  trying1  to  say  "tub."  What  with  his 
Japonicized  English  and  my  Anglicized 
Japanese  we  find  it  hard  to  understand  each 
other,  but  I  hope  that  soon  the  spur  of 
necessity  will  so  far  improve  my  Japan- 
ese as  to  remove  these  little  difficulties. 

September  17. 

To-day  I  have  been  over  to  the  school 
for  the  first  time  in  my  official  capacity, 
and  have  seen  and  been  introduced  to  my 
classes  and  my  superiors,  and  to-morrow 
I  begin  work.  Mine  introduced  me  to 
Mrs.  Shimoda,  the  lady  principal,  who  does 
not  speak  any  English,  so  we  were  obliged 
to  exchange  polite  speeches  through  the 
medium  of  Mine's  interpretation.  Then 
I  was  taken  to  a  little  room,  where  I 
was  shown  a  desk  in  which  I  can  keep 
whatever  books,  stationery,  etc.,  I  may 
wish  to  have  at  the  school,  and  at  which 
I  can  sit  between  classes.  Every  teacher 
has  such  a  desk,  and  it  seems  a  very  con- 
venient arrangement.  Here  I  wras  left  to 
meditate  until  called  for,  but  the  time  did 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  PEERESSES.      9 

not  seem  long,  for  I  was  busy  watching  the 
other  teachers  in  the  room  and  conversing 
with  Miss  H.,  the  only  foreigner  beside  my- 
self in  the  employ  of  the  school.  When 
Mine  came  back,  she  offered  to  take  me 
about  and  introduce  me  to  my  classes.  So 
we  went  from  room  to  room,  and  as  Mine 
announced  my  name  to  the  group  of  or- 
derly little  peeresses  seated  in  each  room, 
the  children  bowed  most  reverentially  and 
gracefully.  Then  I  bowed,  as  well  as  I 
know  how,  though  I  think  that  bowing  is  a 
lost  art  in  America.  This  ceremony  ended, 
Min6  would  speak  a  few  words  in  Japanese 
to  the  class,  and  so  give  me  time  to  look 
over  my  future  pupils.  I  was  introduced 
to  five  classes  after  this  manner,  and  then 
my  work  for  the  morning  was  over,  so  I 
went  back  to  my  desk,  while  Mine  went  on 
to  salute  her  own  classes. 

After  a  while  it  was  announced  that  all 
the  teachers  and  pupils  were  to  assemble 
in  the  gymnasium,  there  to  be  addressed 
by  the  principal,  an  elderly  and  scholarly 
gentleman  of  the  old  school,  but  one  who 
speaks  not  a  word  of  English.  We  went 
down  to  the  gymnasium,  which  is  con- 
nected with  the  main  school  building  by 


10  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

a  covered  walk,  and  met  all  the  girls  on 
their  way  thither,  each  class  under  the 
leadership  of  a  teacher.  I  saw  one  rogu- 
ish little  face  laughing  at  me  from  among 
the  crowd,  and  recognized  one  of  Yuki's 
little  daughters,  who  has  to-day  taken  her 
first  plunge  into  school  life.  She  seemed 
to  be  enjoying  her  morning's  experience, 
and  fairly  danced  herself  out  of  line  when 
she  found  that  I  had  recognized  her.  When 
we  finally  reached  the  gymnasium,  we 
found  it  filled  with  girls  arranged  in  line 
according  to  size,  with  all  the  smallest 
ones  in  front.  When  I  saw  them,  my 
thoughts  could  not  but  fly  back  to  Hamp- 
ton, and  contrast  our  poor  little  picka- 
ninnies there  with  these  little  peeresses. 
But  they  are  alike  in  one  way,  and  that 
is  that  their  lives  are  more  or  less  stunted 
and  cramped  by  the  circumstances  of  their 
birth,  the  pickaninnies  by  poverty  and  the 
disabilities  of  their  low  social  position,  the 
peeresses  by  the  rigid  restraints  and  formal- 
ities that  accompany  their  rank. 

Very  pretty  children  these  little  peer- 
esses are,  in  spite  of  the  ugly  foreign  dress 
into  which  the  school  requirements  force 
them.     Their   mothers   have   undoubtedly 


FOREIGN  CLOTHES.  11 

tried  hard  to  have  them  well  dressed  for 
the  first  day  of  school,  but  most  of  the 
dresses  have  evidently  been  chosen  and 
made  by  people  not  in  the  least  familiar 
with  any  style  of  European  garment,  and 
are  now  worn  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the 
children  look,  so  far  as  clothes  go,  like  the 
veriest  clodhoppers,  instead  of  the  descend- 
ants of  perhaps  the  oldest  aristocracy  in 
the  world.  The  shoes  and  stockings  es- 
pecially show  the  parent's  ignorance  of  the 
niceties  of  foreign  dress,  for  the  stockings 
are  of  the  coarsest  wool  in  the  gaudiest  of 
colored  stripes,  making  the  slender  well- 
shaped  legs  look  heavy  and  shapeless,  and 
the  shoes  are  the  roughest  calfskin,  in 
many  cases  much  too  large  for  the  small 
feet.  But  there  the  children  stand  in 
their  queer  clothes,  all  silent  and  orderly, 
though  no  one  is  keeping  order,  and  the 
teachers  are  bustling  about,  talking  among 
themselves.  Any  company  of  American 
children  would  be  uncontrollable  if  kept 
standing  so  long  with  nothing  to  do,  but 
these  children  are  too  wrell  mannered  to  be 
noisy  in  the  presence  of  their  elders,  and  so 
they  stand  like  statues  and  wait.  After 
a  while   the  principal  comes  forward  and 


12  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

bows,  and  all  the  children  bend  themselves 
nearly  double  in  return ;  then  he  makes 
a  very  short  speech  and  bows  again,  aud 
once  more  the  whole  three  hundred  and 
fifty  bow  simultaneously.  Then  Mrs.  Shi- 
moda  comes  to  the  front  and  bows,  and 
again  the  little  audience  bows  in  response. 
It  is  a  very  pretty  custom,  and  I  do  not  see 
why,  when  a  speaker  bows  to  his  audience, 
the  audience  should  not  return  the  compli- 
ment. It  seems  quite  the  natural  and  po- 
lite thing  to  do,  but  is  a  little  surprising  at 
first  sight.  Mrs.  Shimoda  makes  a  short 
speech,  and  then  one  of  the  directors  speaks, 
and  after  that  the  children  are  marshaled 
out  again  by  their  teachers.  That  is  the 
end  of  the  morning's  exercises,  and  Mine 
and  I  only  wait  to  draw  our  text-books  from 
the  school  library,  before  going  home,  . 

I  have  been  looking  over  my  text-books 
since  I  came  back,  among  others  an  Amer- 
ican "  Universal  History/'  in  which  I  find 
the  following  statement :  "  The  only  his- 
toric race  is  the  Caucasian,  the  others 
having  done  little  worth  recording."  It 
seems  to  me  that  this  will  be  a  very  inter- 
esting piece  of  news  to  a  class  of  Japanese 
girls  who  are  already  quite  familiar  with 


PEEBESSES  AND  PUPILS.  13 

the  wonderfully  stirring  and  heroic  his- 
tory of  their  own  country.  I  asked  Mine 
what  she  thought  they  would  say  to  that, 
and  she  replied  that  she  should  think  they 
would  say  that  the  book  was  written  by  a 
Caucasian.  I  have  decided  to  skip  the  in- 
troduction which  contains  this  statement, 
so  as  to  avoid  showing  to  my  pupils  the 
self-conceit  of  my  own  race. 

September  20. 

My  work  has  now  fairly  begun,  and  while 
impressions  are  fresh  I  will  write  them 
down,  so  that  you  may  know  how  the  peer- 
esses strike  me  on  first  acquaintance.  The 
first  thing  that  oue  notices  after  American 
schools  is  the  absolute  absence  of  discipline, 
or  of  any  necessity  for  it.  The  pupils  are 
all  so  perfectly  lady-like  that  politeness  re- 
strains them  from  doing  anything  that  is 
not  exactly  what  their  teachers  or  supe- 
riors would  wish  them  to  do.  There  is 
no  noise  in  the  corridors,  no  whispering 
in  the  classes,  nothing  but  the  most  per- 
fect attention  to  what  the  teacher  says,  and 
the  most  earnest  desire  to  be  careful  and 
thoughtful  always  of  the  feelings  of  oth- 
ers, especially  of  the  teachers.     Mine  says 


14  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

that  in  addition  to  this  there  is  in  the  Peer- 
esses' School  a  most  remarkably  high  sense 
of  honor,  so  that  the  teacher  can  be  quite 
sure  that  her  pupils  will  never  be  guilty 
of  cheating,  or  shamming,  or  trying  to  im- 
prove their  standing  by  any  false  methods. 
Though  the  old  nobility  may  be  run  out  phy- 
sically and  mentally,  their  sense  of  honor 
is  something  wonderful,  and  the  feeling  of 
noblesse  oblige  is  so  strong  that  they  scorn  all 
petty  meannesses  as  something  not  in  keep- 
ing with  their  rank.  It  is  very  interest- 
ing to  me,  in  reading  over  the  names  on 
my  class  lists,  to  notice  that  some  of  them 
were  famous  in  Japanese  history  long  be- 
fore Columbus  discovered  America.  Some- 
how the  centuries  of  honor  in  which  the 
families  have  been  held  have  told  upon  the 
daughters,  and  they  are  ladies  in  the  finest 
sense  of  that  much-abused  word,  even  when 
dressed  in  such  shapeless  and  dowdy  clothes 
that  a  beggar  woman  in  America  would 
turn  up  her  nose  at  them. 

And  now,  perhaps,  you  would  be  inter- 
ested to  hear  a  little  of  the  daily  school 
routine.  When  I  go  over  in  the  morning, 
my  first  duty  is  to  register  my  name  in  the 
record  of  attendance.      This  I  do  with  a 


SCHOOL  ROUTINE.  15 

little  seal  upon  which  my  name  is  inscribed 
in  Japanese,  for  the  seal  in  Japan  is  used 
instead  of  the  autograph  signature  in  Amer- 
ica. I  have  just  learned  to  seal  my 
name  right  side  up,  and  to  recognize  it 
when  it  is  written  in  Japanese,  and  I  re- 
gard this  as  a  great  advancement  over  my 
former  state  of  ignorance.  Having  thus 
recorded  myself  as  present,  I  go  to  my 
desk,  and  there  await  the  ringing  of  the 
bell  that  calls  the  girls  in  from  the  play- 
ground and  the  teachers  to  meet  their 
classes.  When  the  bell  rings,  I  go  to  my 
recitation  room,  and  there,  ranged  in  line 
outside  of  the  door,  is  my  class  awaiting 
me.  I  bow  as  low  as  I  can,  the  pupils  bow 
still  lower,  and  then  go  into  the  room. 
They  take  their  places  quietly  and  stand;  I 
bow  from  my  place  at  the  teacher's  desk, 
again  the  girls  bow,  and  take  their  seats, 
and  for  fifty  minutes  wre  labor  with  the  in- 
tricacies of  the  English  language.  The 
signal  for  the  close  of  the  lesson  is  given 
by  a  man  who  walks  through  the  corridors 
clapping  a  pair  of  wooden  clappers.  When 
I  hear  that  sound,  I  finish  the  lesson,  and 
bow  to  the  class,  who  all  bow,  rise,  and 
marching   quietly  out   of  the  door  range 


16  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

themselves  in  order  and  wait  for  me.  I 
walk  out,  bow  to  them  once  more,  they 
make  a  farewell  obeisance,  and  quietly  dis- 
perse for  the  ten-minute  recess  that  comes 
at  the  end  of  each  fifty-minute  recitation. 
The  whole  thing  is  very  pretty,  and  I  am 
charmed  with  this  manner  of  calling  to 
order  and  dismissing  classes.  It  might 
have  a  civilizing  effect,  if  introduced  into 
American  schools. 

September  26. 

I  am  going  to  copy  into  this  letter  a 
funny  little  bit  of  translation  that  was 
handed  me  as  a  school  exercise  a  day  or 
two  ago.  The  young  lady  who  did  it  must 
have  translated  it  word  for  word  from  the 
Japanese,  using  the  first  word  that  she 
found  in  the  dictionary,  and  the  result  is  a 
little  obscure  at  times. 

The  Story  of  Boy  and  Crab. 

Some  boy  was  playing  at  river  bank  and 
saw  a  crab  going  away.  Then  the  boy  call 
back  the  crab  and  said  this  track  is  straight 
but  why  you  go  sideways?  The  crab  angry 
and  said  I  am  ashame,  not  straight  hard, 
not  ashame,  shape  is  transverse  because 
my  natural  constitution  is  transverse,  so  I 


AN  EXCITING  RIDE.  17 

go  transverse,  but  your  natural  constitution 
is  length,  so  you  must  go  at  length.  You 
do  not  go  transverse  in  a  cross  road.  When 
you  forget  your  natural  constitution  and 
do  my  imitation,  I  hand  up  my  nail  and 
cut  your  body  and  go  looking  askent  and 
again  going  away. 

Yesterday,  Mine  and  I  had  a  most  ex- 
citing jinrikisha  ride.  Our  men  were  very 
strong  and  fast,  and  seemed  to  be  as  fresh 
as  two  colts  just  feeling  their  oats.  They 
raced  with  each  other  most  of  the  time 
while  wre  were  out,  and  it  seemed  to  me  a 
good  deal  like  riding  a  frisky  horse  with 
no  bridle.  They  ran  so  fast  through  the 
business  streets  that  my  heart  was  in  my 
mouth  most  of  the  way  for  fear  they 
would  run  us  into  something,  or  upset  us 
in  switching  suddenly  around  a  corner. 
My  man  almost  ran  over  a  child,  in  fact, 
the  hub. of  the  wheel  struck  the  child  on 
the  knee,  and  a  minute  or  two  afterward 
he  came  within  a  hair's  breadth  of  running 
into  the  kuruma  of  an  elderly  Japanese 
gentleman  who  was  just  ahead  of  us  in 
the  road.  The  worst  of  this  kind  of  thing 
is  that,  while  you  have  no  control  what- 


18  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

ever  over  your  man,  you  cannot  help  feel- 
ing responsible  for  his  carelessness. 

The  weather  has  only  just  become  so 
cool  that  I  am  not  perfectly  comfortable  in 
the  thinnest  kind  of  a  white  dress,  but  yes- 
terday I  was  actually  frozen  out  of  it,  and 
I  suppose  I  may  put  my  thin  dresses  away 
now  until  next  summer.  I  should  say, 
from  my  brief  experience  of  this  climate, 
that  it  is  much  more  to  be  depended  upon 
than  our  own,  and  not  subject  to  the  sud- 
den and  violent  changes  that  characterize 
all  the  climates  I  have  yet  tried  in  Amer- 
ica. After  the  warm  weather  has  once 
begun  here,  one  could  go  away  into  the 
country  and  stay  for  two  months  without 
a  particle  of  woolen  clothing,  and  never  be 
chilly  a  moment.  There  is  none  of  that 
one  day  summer  and  the  next  day  winter 
that  we  have  to  provide  for  at  home. 


CHAPTEE  II. 
October  1  to  15. 

A  Sunday  Visit.  —  "  Bot'  Chan."  —  Preparations  for  a 
Horse.  —  The  Peeresses'  English  Society.  —  Tokyo 
from  a  Horse's  Back.  —  English  as  a  Dead  Language. 

—  Dawn.  —  A    Sunday-School    Class.  —  Mr.    Kozaki. 

—  Difficulties  with  the  Kana.  —  Bruce  and  the  Betto. 

—  Lecture  on  Bandai  San.  —  Prince  Haru.  —  Difficul- 
ties in  Church-Going.  —  A  Japanese  Meal. 

Monday,  October  1,  1888. 

Sunday  afternoon,  I  went  out  to  a  sub- 
urb of  Tokyo,  where  Yuki's  husband  has 
been  putting  up  a  fine  new  foreign  house. 
It  was  designed  by  a  German  architect 
here,  and  is  different  from  most  of  the  for- 
eign houses  in  the  city  in  being  comfortable 
and  well  built,  and  looking  quite  like  some 
of  our  pleasant  American  homes.  There  is  a 
little  farm  about  the  house,  with  tea-plants, 
strawberry-vines,  sweet  potatoes,  and  va- 
rious other  fruits  and  vegetables  growing 
finely.  There  are  beautiful  chestnut-trees, 
too,  on  which  large  nuts,  like  the  Spanish 
chestnuts,   are    just    ripening.      When   I 


20  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

reached  the  house,  which  is  as  yet  not  quite 
finished,  I  was  much  puzzled  as  to  how  I 
was  to  get  in,  and  was  wandering  about 
searching  for  traces  of  the  party  that  I 
knew  to  be  gathered  there,  when  Yuki's 
eldest  daughter  came  out  of  the  last  door 
that  I  should  ever  have  thought  of  entering, 
and  conducted  me  up  flight  after  flight  of 
stairs  to  the  very  top  of  the  house.  Here  a 
room  had  been  finished  off,  and  furnished 
with  Japanese  mats.  Quite  a  company 
was  assembled  there,  many  of  them  Eng- 
lish-speaking Japanese  and  friends  or 
acquaintances  of  mine.  All  were  seated 
upon  the  floor  in  the  comfortable  Japanese 
fashion,  but  a  pile  of  cushions  was  made 
for  me  out  of  respect  for  my  stiff  foreign 
joints.  A  curious  kind  of  lunch  was  spread 
out  on  the  floor,  consisting  of  sweet  po- 
tatoes (always  eaten  here  between  meals, 
never  as  a  vegetable  with  meals),  a  kind  of 
root  which  has  a  leaf  something  like  a  calla, 
and  boiled,  to  be  eaten  with  salt,  and  fruit 
of  various  kinds.  There  were  grapes,  fresh 
figs,  pomegranates,  persimmons,  and  the 
queer,  hard  Japanese  pears  that  look  like 
russet  apples,  and  taste  like  some  kind  of 
medicine  when  they  have  any  flavor  at  all, 


BOT  CHAN.  21 

which  is  not  often.  There  was  of  course 
the  inevitable  tea,  of  which  I  have  now 
grown  quite  fond.  When  we  had  nibbled 
in  a  desultory  way  at  this  repast,  Yuki 
took  me  out  to  show  me  the  place.  We 
went  first  over  the  house,  her  husband 
going  with  us,  and  beaming  graciously  at 
my  approval  of  the  arrangements,  for  this 
house  is  one  of  his  hobbies,  and  he  takes  the 
utmost  delight  in  every  window-fastening 
and  door-knob.  Then  we  went  out  for  a  look 
at  the  grounds;  first  to  the  tennis  lawn, 
where  about  a  dozen  children  were  having 
a  frolic.  They  formed  a  picturesque  group 
in  their  pretty  Japanese  clothes,  and  seemed 
to  be  having  a  delightful  and  harmonious 
time.  When  we  had  watched  the  children 
for  a  while,  we  made  a  tour  of  the  grounds, 
"  Bot'  chan  "  going  with  us,  and  conduct- 
ing himself  in  a  most  serious  and  dignified 
manner,  until  finally,  as  the  shortness  of 
his  legs  somewhat  hindered  our  progress, 
his  mother  confided  him  to  the  care  of  his 
valet.  He  is  a  fine,  sturdy  boy,  with  curly 
black  hair  cut  very  short,  a  stately  way  of 
holding  his  head,  and  a  somewhat  serious 
cast  of  countenance.  His  tastes  are  war- 
like and   equestrian,  and  he  has  a  white 


22  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

Arabian  horse  on  which  he  rides  with  the 
assistance  of  the  groom,  though  he  is  not 
yet  three  years  old.  He  has  also  a  beau- 
tiful, small  sword,  of  the  finest  Japanese 
steel,  but  he  despises  this  because  it  is  not 
large  enough,  and  wants  his  father's. 

By  the  time  we  had  finished  our  tour,  the 
guests  were  preparing  to  depart,  so  I  went 
too,  and  trotted  gayly  home  in  my  jinriki- 
sha  with  my  favorite  fast  man.  Bruce 
greatly  delighted  my  kurumaya  by  defeat- 
ing utterly  a  dog  of  about  twice  his  size, 
who  came  up  and  attacked  him  from  be- 
hind as  he  was  following  the  jinrikisha. 
The  man  turned  around  in  the  shafts  and 
delivered  quite  a  harangue,  in  which  I 
could  catch  only  the  word  "  inu,"  but  con- 
cluded that  it  was  in  commendation  of 
Bruce's  pluck,  as  he  smiled  most  approv- 
ingly upon  him. 

October  5. 

To-day  has  been  quite  exciting  to  me 
and  my  household,  for  a  horse  has  come  in 
for  trial,  and  I  have  been  seeing  to  having 
him  installed  in  the  stable,  and  paying  the 
bills  for  the  various  mysterious  things  that 
a  Japanese  groom  regards  as  indispensable. 
I  am  to  try  the  beast  to-morrow,  and  hope 


A  NEW  HORSE.  23 

that  he  will  be  what  I  want,  as  it  would  be 
very  pleasant  to  be  able  to  settle  the  horse 
question  without  further  trouble.  Horses 
here  are  put  into  their  stalls  wrong  end 
foremost,  so  that  I  never  go  into  the  stable 
without  thinking  of  the  nursery  rhyme,  — 

"See!     See!     What  shall  I  see  ? 
A  horse's  head  where  its  tail  should  be." 

The  author  of  the  couplet  must  have  vis- 
ited Japan. 

Min6  and  I  are  to  have  our  girls  here 
Saturday  night  for  an  English  evening. 
It  is  one  of  the  few  festivities  that  the 
poor  girls  are  allowed  to  go  to,  as  their 
rank  is  too  high  to  permit  them  to  enjoy 
themselves  like  common  folks.  The  girls 
of  the  highest  rank  are  not,  as  a  rule,  per- 
mitted even  to  enter  the  houses  of  the  samu- 
rai class,  but  because  we  are  their  teachers 
they  can  come  to  us,  although  they  could 
not  go  anywhere  else.  Teachers  are  held 
in  great  esteem  here,  and  the  profession  is 
a  most  honorable  one,  so  that  even  if  you 
are  teaching  the  future  Emperor,  you  are 
for  the  time  being  his  superior. 


24  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

October  6. 

I  have  had  my  first  ride  this  afternoon, 
and  enjoyed  it  very  much.  It  makes  one 
feel  very  grand  indeed  to  have  a  man  run 
ahead  all  the  way  to  clear  the  people  out 
of  the  road.  It  seems  to  be  absolutely  ne- 
cessary in  Tokyo  to  have  such  a  forerunner, 
for  there  are  no  sidewalks,  and  the  streets 
are  full  of  people,  and  especially  of  very 
small  children,  who  are  quite  frequently 
burdened  with  smaller  ones  tied  to  their 
backs,  so  that  they  cannot  get  away  with 
very  great  speed,  and  if  the  man  did  not 
run  ahead  to  announce  my  coming,  I  could 
never  go  faster  than  a  walk.  On  horseback 
the  small  size  of  everything  in  Japan  is 
more  than  usually  noticeable.  Although 
the  horse  I  rode  to-day  was  a  small  one,  I 
found  that  my  view  was  rather  more  of 
the  roofs  than  of  the  house  fronts,  and  if 
I  had  ridden  up  close  to  a  shop  to  make 
purchases,  I  think  that  my  head  would 
have  come  a  good  way  above  the  eaves. 

I  have  succeeded  in  securing  as  my  Jap- 
anese teacher  one  of  the  officers  of  our 
school,  who  agrees  to  teach  me  Japanese 
in  return  for  my  teaching  him  English. 
He   cannot   speak   a  word  of  English,  al- 


MB.  KOZAKI.  25 

though  he  can  read  it  quite  easily.  It 
seems  that  a  good  many  Japanese  learn 
English  as  we  learn  Latin  and  Greek,  sim- 
ply to  read  and  for  the  sake  of  its  litera- 
ture, and  never  learn  anything  about  its 
pronunciation,  or  to  speak  it  or  understand 
it  when  spoken. 

October  11. 

My  afternoons  have  been  chiefly  occu- 
pied lately  in  getting  a  horse,  as  the  first 
one  I  tried  seemed  rather  small,  and  I  was 
afraid  he  would  break  down  under  me.  I 
have  now  in  the  stable  a  strong  but  not 
too  beautiful  black  beast,  who  will,  I  hope, 
answer  my  purpose.  His  name  is  Dawn, 
though  he  is  as  black  as  night,  and  he  has 
been  a  racer,  and  is  said  to  run  very  well 
still,  though  the  only  time  I  have  ridden 
him,  so  far,  he  did  not  condescend  to  show 
off  his  paces,  but  proceeded  at  the  gravest 
and  soberest  of  trots. 

I  have  decided  to  take  a  class  in  the  Sun- 
day-school of  one  of  the  Japanese  Congre- 
gational churches,  if  the  pastor  can  get 
together  one  that  would  like  to  be  taught 
in  English.  The  pastor  of  this  church,  Mr. 
Kozaki,  is  an  interesting  man,  and  a  very 
good  specimen  of  the  work  turned  out  by 


26  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

the  Doshisha  School  in  Ky5to.  He  is,  I  be- 
lieve, the  most  influential  Japanese  Chris- 
tian in  Tokyo,  and  has  a  large  church 
which  he  has  himself  built  up,  and  by  which 
he  is  reaching  more  and  more  of  the  influ- 
ential and  educated  Japanese.  He  speaks 
English  easily  and  intelligibly,  and  seems 
to  keep  abreast  of  the  most  advanced  reli- 
gious thought. 

There  has  never  been  a  Congregational 
missionary  stationed  in  Tokyo,  but  two 
churches  of  that  order  have  grown  up  here 
of  their  own  accord,  and  are  to-day  more 
flourishing  than  many  of  those  that  have 
been  built  up  and  superintended  by  foreign 
missionaries  resident  in  the  city. 

My  Japanese  is  progressing,  though  not 
with  great  rapidity.  The  alphabet  is  quite 
discouraging.  I  find  that  the  more  letters 
I  study,  the  fewer  I  can  remember ;  and 
a  curious  psychological  fact  in  regard  to 
this  study  is  that  I  can  always  remember 
the  one  next  in  order  to  the  one  I  want. 
Then  when  I  have  at  last  found  the  one  I 
am  looking  for  and  try  to  take  the  next  one 
in  order,  I  find  that  it  has  stepped  out  of  its 
place  in  my  head,  leaving  the  next  one  to 
answer  for  it.     It  is  very  bewildering,  and 


A  PERPLEXED  GROOM.  27 

the  only  way  I  can  catch  the  things  is  to 
make  believe  that  I  want  the  next-door 
neighbor,  and  then  the  one  I  am  really 
looking  for  will  sometimes  come  to  me. 

I  started  out  on  my  ride  this  afternoon, 
taking  Bruce  for  the  first  time.  I  had  the 
groom  warned  beforehand  that  he  was  not 
to  let  the  dog  drink  out  of  the  ditches  or 
bite  the  horse's  legs.  As  a  result  of  this 
warning,  the  poor  man  was  nearly  distracted 
with  his  complicated  duties,  for  in  his  ef- 
fort to  run  ahead  and  clear  the  way  for  me, 
and  to  keep  track  of  Bruce  and  whip  all 
the  dogs  that  came  running  out  to  bark 
at  him,  he  nearly  exhausted  himself.  He 
was,  however,  very  earnest  and  good  natured 
in  the  performance  of  his  work,  and  was 
much  disgusted  when  Bruce  succeeded  in 
getting  into  a  particularly  nasty  ditch  be- 
fore he  could  prevent  it. 

My  groom  is  quite  a  picturesque  looking 
fellow,  with  silky,  slightly  wavy  hair,  which 
he  wears  rather  long  and  shakes  back  as 
he  runs  hatless  through  the  streets,  as  if 
he  were  a  little  proud  of  it.  He  has  a 
light,  trim  figure,  which  shows  to  advan- 
tage in  his  long  blue  tights  and  wing- 
sleeved    blouse,    belted    around    his   slim 


28  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

waist  with  a  dark  blue  sash.  On  a  warm 
day,  when  he  runs,  he  turns  up  his  loose 
sleeves,  showing  a  pair  of  well-shaped  arms 
handsomely  tattooed  in  blue  and  red.  The 
first  time  he  went  out  with  me,  I  thought 
he  had  on  a  figured  calico  shirt,  but  a 
closer  inspection  showed  that  the  figures 
were  actually  tattooed  into  his  skin.  To- 
day, when  we  reached  home  after  our  ride, 
I  made  the  betto  wash  Bruce,  or  rather  I 
held  the  dog  in  the  tub  while  the  groom 
did  the  scrubbing.  Poor  Bruce  had  never 
taken  a  bath  before  such  an  audience  in 
his  life,  and  seemed  grieved  that  I  should 
make  a  fool  of  him  in  so  public  a  way. 
The  cook  brought  a  large  tub  and  placed 
it  on  the  ground  directly  in  front  of  my 
front  door,  and  had  filled  it  with  water  be- 
fore I  came  out,  so  that  I  could  not  have 
it  moved.  Mine's  whole  family  took  up 
their  station  in  my  dining-room  window, 
and  the  cook  and  his  wife  felt  bound  to 
stand  around  and  see  what  was  being 
done,  while  the  groom  and  I  attended  to 
Bruce's  toilet.  I  am  sure  that  if  any  of 
my  American  friends  could  have  come  to 
see  me  just  then,  they  would  have  thought 
the  situation  very  funny. 


BANBAI  SAN.  29 

Later  in  the  afternoon,  Mine  and  I 
went  to  a  lecture  on  the  volcanic  explosion 
at  Bandai  San,  given  before  the  Seis mo- 
logical  Society  by  one  of  the  university  pro- 
fessors. Though  the  professor  was  Japan- 
ese, the  lecture  was  delivered  in  English, 
and  illustrated  with  magic-lantern  slides 
from  photographs  taken  on  the  spot 
immediately  after  the  eruption.  Professor 
Sekiya  estimated  the  area  covered  with 
mud  as  about  twenty-seven  square  miles, 
and  that  covered  with  ashes  as  sixty-seven. 
He  showed  by  a  diagram  how  the  whole 
top  of  the  mountain  was  blown  off  and 
scattered  in  a  shower  of  scalding  mud  over 
the  surrounding  country.  He  estimated 
that  a  billion  and  a  half  cubic  yards  of 
mud  were  poured  out  in  this  way.  The 
country  was  completely  inundated  by 
streams  of  mud,  carrying  along  on  their 
surface  enormous  boulders.  The  river  was 
dammed  for  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  and 
spread  itself  out  into  three  large  lakes  at 
places  where  its  onward  movement  had 
been  stopped,  so  increasing  the  destruc- 
tive work  of  the  explosion  far  beyond  the 
mud- covered  area.  Seven  villages  were 
entirely  destroyed,  and  a  great  extent  of 


30  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR, 

fertile  land  rendered  for  the  present  quite 
useless.  Many  lives  were  lost,  and  much 
suffering  brought  upon  the  survivors,  who 
lost  everything  that  goes  to  make  life  en- 
durable. 

As  I  was  coining  back  from  my  ride  this 
afternoon,  I  heard  a  shouting  behind  me, 
and  knew  that  the  carriage  of  some  great 
person  was  approaching,  so  I  drew  up  at 
the  side  of  the  road  to  let  it  pass,  and  to 
see  if  I  could  recognize  any  one  in  it.  Two 
grooms  ran  ahead,  shouting  with  all  their 
might,  a  gorgeously  liveried  coachman  sat 
on  the  box,  and  a  footman,  similarly  attired, 
stood  behind.  There  were  three  officers  in 
full  uniform  in  the  carriage  and  one  small 
boy,  dressed  in  the  uniform  of  the  Peers' 
School,  and  with  a  knapsack  strapped  on 
his  back.  He  stood  up  in  the  carriage  to 
look  at  Bruce  and  me  as  he  went  by,  and 
though  he  looked  very  much  like  any  other 
small  Japanese  boy,  I  had  a  suspicion,  from 
the  pomp  and  circumstance  with  which  he 
rode,  that  he  might  be  Prince  Haru.  When 
he  had  passed,  my  groom  turned  to  me 
and  said  in  the  Yokohama  Japanese  which 
grooms  affect  with  their  foreign  employ- 
ers, "  Mikado  no  kodomo  "  ("  the  Mikado's 


CHURCH-GOING.  31 

boy").  I  expressed  interest,  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  enlighten  me  further  with,  "Him 
Nippon  no  ichi  ban  good  boy,"  which  is, 
being  interpreted,  "  He  is  Japan's  number 
one  good  boy." 

Monday,  October  15. 

Yesterday  morning,  I  tried  to  go  to  the 
English  church  in  Shiba  with  a  new  jinrik- 
isha  man,  who  did  not  know  the  way  at  all. 
He  dragged  me  pretty  much  all  over  Tokyo, 
and  frequently  stopped  and  inquired  the 
way,  when  I  at  once  became  the  centre  of 
an  admiring  crowd.  The  directions  that 
he  received  always  resulted  in  sending  him 
straight  up  some  particularly  steep  hill. 
After  he  had  laboriously  ascended,  searched 
carefully  upon  the  top  for  a  church  and 
found  none,  he  would  straightway  bolt 
down  the  hill  at  break-neck  speed  and 
seek  information  elsewhere.  In  conse- 
quence of  our  researches  on  the  various 
hilltops,  I  was  ten  minutes  late  at  church, 
and  had  to  walk  in  among  the  respectable 
and  stiff  English  congregation  when  they 
were  well  on  in  the  service. 

In  the  evening,  I  went  with  Mine  to  an 
informal  little  service  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Ladies5  Institute,  not  far  from  our  house. 


32  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

I  had  been  going  on  to  take  tea  with  a 
friend  who  lives  the  other  side  of  Tokyo, 
and  had  told  my  servants  that  I  should 
not  be  back  to  dinner,  but  when  the  ser- 
vice was  over  I  found  it  too  late  to  go  on, 
so  went  home,  wondering  whether  I  should 
have  to  go  supperless  to  bed.  However, 
Mine  said  that  she  had  ordered  for  her 
supper  some  chicken  and  onions  fried 
together  in  a  peculiar  Japanese  way,  and 
flavored  with  sugar,  shoyu,  and  sake,  and 
offered  to  share  it  with  me.  I  sent  my 
cook  out  to  the  nearest  eel-house  to  order 
eels  and  rice,  a  dish  which  the  Japanese 
cook  to  perfection,  and  we  succeeded  in 
making  a  very  good  supper  on  Japanese 
fare,  pieced  out  with  bread  and  knives  and 
forks.  The  chicken,  by  the  way,  though 
it  may  not  sound  appetizing,  was  very 
good. 


CHAPTEE   III. 
October  21  to  November  4. 

Mr.  Kozaki's  Church.  —  Introduction  to  Bible  Class.  — 
Reception  Days. —  A  Hibachi.  —  Two  Old  Ladies.  — 
My  Paper  Dining-Room.  —  Funeral  Fashions.  —  An 
Official  Funeral.  —  Simplicity  of  Japanese  Living.  — 
Posthumous  Titles.  —  The  Emperor's  Birthday. 

Sunday,  October  21,  1888. 

This  morning,  in  spite  of  a  drenching 
rain,  I  attended  service  at  the  Japanese 
Congregational  church  near  here,  as  steps 
had  been  taken  to  organize  a  class  for  me, 
and  the  pastor  wanted  me  to  come  and 
meet  my  pupils.  Although  I  could  not 
understand  a  word  of  the  service,  I  enjoyed 
it  more  than  many  meetings  where  English 
is  spoken,  for  I  sat  where  I  could  watch 
the  audience,  and  their  intentness  made 
up  somewhat  for  my  lack  of  understand- 
ing. It  was  an  intelligent-looking  congre- 
gation, made  up  largely  of  men,  most  of 
them  young,  though  here  and  there  a  gray 
head  could  be  seen  among  the  black  ones. 
The  people  seemed,  to  be  drawn  from  all 


34  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

classes  in  society,  although  in  this  church 
there  is  a  larger  proportion  of  the  official 
classes  than  in  any  other  church  in  the 
city.  It  was  most  interesting  to  watch 
the  audience  during  the  sermon.  All  lis- 
tened intently,  and  with  more  the  look  of 
students  in  a  college  lecture-room  than 
of  a  congregation  listening  to  a  sermon. 
There  was  none  of  that  air  of  polite  bore- 
dom that  we  see  so  much  of  in  American 
churches.  Almost  all  the  grown  persons, 
both  men  and  women,  had  Bibles,  in  which 
they  verified  carefully  all  references,  and 
many  had  pencils  and  paper,  with  which 
they  took  notes.  They  were  evidently 
in  search  of  instruction  rather  than  fine 
oratory  or  aesthetic  gratification  of  any 
kind.  The  church  was  large  and  light  and 
airy,  with  no  attempt  at  ornament  except 
the  beautifully  arranged  flowers  near  the* 
pulpit.  The  benches  were  exceedingly  hard 
and  uncomfortable,  like  all  seats  of  Japan- 
ese manufacture.  When  the  service  v^as 
over,  the  pastor  asked  my  class  to  meet  hie 
in  a  little  room  opening  out  of  the  ijiain 
audience-room.  When  I  went  in,  iihder 
his  care,  I  was  surprised  to  find  some 
ten  or  a  dozen  exceedingly  bright-tooking 


CHRYSANTHEMUMS.  35 

young  men  awaiting  me.  They  smiled  and 
bowed,  and  seemed  pleased  to  meet  me, 
and  after  a  little  conversation  we  decided 
to  take  up  the  study  of  the  Gospel  of  John, 
so  next  Sunday  we  begin  with  the  first 
chapter. 

One  of  my  little  peeresses  has  just  sent 
me  in  a  bunch  of  four  magnificent  chrys- 
anthemums, the  largest  of  them  nearly  the 
size  of  a  peony.  The  chrysanthemums  are 
just  coming  on  now,  but  will  be  finer  about 
the  1st  of  November.  On  November  3d, 
the  Emperor's  birthday,  our  school  always 
goes  over  to  the  Emperor's  garden  to  look 
at  the  chrysanthemums,  which  are  then  in 
their  prime. 

Monday,  October  22. 

\  To-day  is  our  afternoon  at  home;  for 
Mine  and  I  have  decided  to  have  a  day  at 
home,  for  the  sake  of  encouraging  our 
friends  to  call  on  us.  The  distances  are  so 
great  in  Tokyo  that  it  is  rather  discourag- 
ing to  any  one  to  take  a  ride  of  an  hour  or 
twQ  in  jinrikisha  to  see  a  friend,  and  then 
find  that  friend  out.  so  it  has  come  to  be 
the  custom  among  the  foreigners  here  to 
spend  on§  afternoon  in  the  week  at  home, 
and  to  serve  a  cup  of  tea  to  each  guest. 


36  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

On  Saturday,  Mine  and  I  went  to  a  kwan 
ko  ba  and  bought  a  fine  hibachi,  or  char- 
coal brazier,  and  a  pretty  copper  tea-kettle, 
with  a  spray  of  cherry  blossoms  beaten  out 
on  it,  in  repousse  work,  and  Chinese  letters 
in  brass  raised  on  the  surface.  Our  hi- 
bachi  is  made  of  a  section  of  a  tree  trunk, 
smoothed  into  a  regular  oval  and  hollowed 
out  in  the  middle.  The  wood  is  about 
the  color  of  old  oak,  and  has  a  beautiful 
grain.  Into  the  hollowed  centre  is  set 
a  copper  pan.  This  is  filled  with  light 
straw  ashes,  a  little  earthenware  inverted 
tripod  is  pressed  down  into  the  ashes  so 
that  only  the  three  points  stick  up,  and 
then  in  the  centre,  between  the  three 
points,  a  charcoal  fire  is  made.  This 
smoulders  away  quietly  under  the  tea- 
kettle placed  on  the  tripod,  and  gives  out 
neither  smoke  nor  gas.  The  arrangement 
is  very  far  superior  to  an  alcohol  lamp,  as 
well  as  much  cheaper,  and  why  we  do  not 
use  it  in  America  I  cannot  imagine,  except 
that  we  are  not  bright  enough  to  think  of 
such  a  simple  thing ;  and,  besides,  we  like 
the  more  complicated  and  expensive  ways 
better.  The  curious  thing  about  all  these 
Japanese  contrivances  is  that  they  are  so 


TWO  OLD  LADIES.  37 

simple  that  it  seems  as  if  any  one  might 
have  thought  of  them,  and  yet  they  answer 
the  purpose  much  better  than  many  of  our 
modern  conveniences  and  inventions. 

Mine  has  two  old  aunts  spending  the 
afternoon  with  her,  and  they  have  just  been 
in  to  see  me.  They  are  both  widows,  and 
therefore  wear  their  hair  short.  Neither 
of  them  had  ever  before  been  in  a  house 
furnished  in  foreign  style,  and  they  were 
much  interested  in  walking  about  the  room 
and  examining  everything  minutely.  At 
length  we  prevailed  upon  them  to  take 
chairs,  upon  the  edges  of  which  they  sat 
gingerly,  still  craning  their  necks  around 
in  search  of  new  wonders.  I  brought  them 
tea,  served  not  in  Japanese  but  in  foreign 
style,  with  saucers  and  spoons,  and  sugar 
and  milk,  and  they  heroically  drank  it, 
though  I  do  not  doubt  they  thought  it 
nasty  stuff.  The  cracker,  which  each  took 
for  the  sake  of  politeness,  was  quite  be- 
yond them,  so  these  were  handed  to  Mine 
for  Bruce,  who  sat  up  and  went  through 
his  tricks  in  their  honor,  to  their  great 
entertainment.  Then  they  toddled  out, 
with  many  deep  bows  and  arigato,  appar- 
ently much  gratified  by  their  visit.     I  sup- 


38  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

pose  it  was  as  much  of  an  event  to  them  as 
it  would  be  to  us  in  America  if  we  could 
suddenly  step  into  a  Japanese  home,  with 
everything  in  pure  Japanese  style. 

We  have  had  a  change  in  the  weather, 
and  it  has  been  quite  cold  to-day,  as  well 
as  very  damp,  after  our  long  storm.  I 
have  a  fire  in  my  parlor  for  the  first  time, 
and  find  that  my  eccentric  little  foreign 
stove  (I  think  it  must  be  German  or 
French)  works  very  well.  My  little  paper 
dining-room  is  quite  uncomfortably  cold, 
and  has  no  heating  arrangement  except 
hibachi.  Two  sides  of  the  rooms  are  made 
entirely  of  sliding  paper  screens  opening 
out  of  doors,  so  that  it  is  very  much  ex- 
posed to  the  weather.  There  are  wooden 
outside  screens  that  can  be  closed,  but 
they  shut  out  the  light,  so  I  can  only  keep 
them  closed  when  I  wish  to  take  my  meals 
by  lamplight.  I  have  ordered  new  screens 
with  glass  set  in  them,  and  then  I  can  let 
in  the  light  and  keep  out  the  air,  and 
hope  to  be  able  to  make  my  dining-room 
comfortable,  with  a  hibachi,  in  all  but  the 
worst  weather. 


FUNERAL  CUSTOMS.  39 

October  25. 

One  of  the  high  officials  has  just  died, 
after  a  long  illness,  and  he  is  to  have  a 
magnificent  funeral,  costing  more  than 
two  thousand  yen.  He  is  to  be  buried  at 
eight  o'clock  to-morrow  morning,  and  as 
I  do  not  have  to  be  at  school  until  9.30,  I 
shall  try  to  get  a  look  at  the  procession, 
which  will  be  well  worth  seeing.  It  seems 
that  when  any  one  dies  in  Japan,  all  his 
friends  send  to  his  house  gifts  of  money, 
fish,  vegetables,  fruit,  cake,  or  eggs,  as 
offerings  to  the  spirit  of  the  deceased,  and 
if  a  man  is  in  a  prominent  position  and  has 
many  friends  and  retainers,  the  house  is 
fairly  flooded  with  these  presents.  Then, 
either  thirty  or  fifty  days  after  the  death, 
the  family  give  some  kind  of  a  feast  in 
honor  of  the  dead,  and  at  that  time  they 
make  great  quantities  of  a  certain  kind  of 
cake,  which  they  send  out  to  all  the  friends 
who  have  sent  offerings.  A  funeral  thus 
becomes  a  terrible  expense  both  to  the 
family  and  to  all  the  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances of  the  deceased.  Some  of  my  Jap- 
anese friends  with  whom  I  was  talking 
yesterday  were  inveighing  against  the  cus- 
tom as  an  utterly  foolish  one,  particularly 


40  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

in  a  case  like  the  present,  for  the  high 
official  whose  death  gave  rise  to  this  dis- 
cussion of  funeral  customs  leaves  a  large 
family,  none  too  well  off',  and  they  are 
likely  to  be  still  further  impoverished  by 
the  necessity  of  returning  in  some  way  the 
kindness  of  the  friends  who  are  at  present 
sending  in  these  extremely  perishable  offer- 
ings to  the  spirit  of  the  departed.  Inas- 
much as  probably  not  one  in  a  hundred  of 
the  givers  has  the  slightest  belief  that  his 
gifts  will  be  a  benefit  to  the  dead  viscount's 
soul,  but  as  they  are  all  giving  these  things 
because  their  forefathers  believed  them 
necessary,  it  does  seem  absurd,  not  to  say 
wicked,  to  keep  up  so  useless  and  expen- 
sive a  custom.  As  one  of  my  friends  said 
during  the  discussion,  "  Better  bury  him  in 
a  barrel/  than  have  his  family  impoverished 
by  these  ridiculous  funeral  customs."  How- 
ever, as  it  is  likely  to  be  a  good  deal  of  a 
show,  and  as  my  presence  will  not  do  much 
to  encourage  the  nuisance,  I  think  I  shall 
take  an  early  ride  to-morrow  and  see  what 
I  can  see. 

1  Among  the  poorest  class  of  Japanese,  the  body,  after 
death,  is  folded  into  a  sitting  posture,  with  the  head 
bent  forward,  and  placed  in  a  wooden  tub  or  cask  for 
burial. 


A  PORTER'S  LODGE.  41 

October  26. 

I  have  been  to  the  funeral,  and  though 
I  did  not  have  time  to  see  the  whole  pro- 
cession, still,  what  I  saw  was  worth  seeing. 
As  Mine  could  not  go  with  me,  she  sent 
two  of  her  girls,  and  though  they  spoke 
very  little  English  and  could  explain  no- 
thing, they  were  very  polite  and  nice  about 
showing  me  around  and  finding  a  good 
place  for  me  to  stay.  It  has  been  pouring 
all  day,  but,  in  spite  of  the  rain,  when  we 
went  out  at  eight  o'clock  this  morning,  the 
streets  along  the  line  of  march  were  lined 
on  both  sides  with  people  waiting  patiently 
for  a  sight  of  the  procession.  We  went  in 
kurumas  to  a  funny  little  house,  in  which 
lives  the  gate-keeper  of  the  compound, 
or  yashiki,  where  Mine  used  to  live.  The 
house,  so  far  as  I  could  see,  and  I  think 
I  saw  the  whole  of  it,  consisted  of  three 
rooms:  a  living-room,  that  commanded  a 
fine  view  of  the  street ;  a  store-room,  in 
which  chests  of  clothes  were  stored,  and 
where  the  bedding  is  kept  during  the  day; 
and  a  kitchen,  into  which  we  could  look, 
and  in  which  we  could  see  the  family  din- 
ing-trays  piled  up  and  the  little  fireplace 
set  down  into  the  floor.      In  the  living- 


42  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

room  there  was  a  god-shelf,  containing  the 
family  idols,  with  flowers  set  before  them, 
and  a  little  china  cupboard,  in  which  were 
the  cheap  but  prettily  decorated  pieces  of 
china  that  form  the  table  service  of  any 
ordinary  workingman's  family.  These 
things,  with  the  omnipresent  hibachi  and 
tea-kettle,  formed  all  the  furniture  of  the 
room,  except  a  pretty  bamboo  vase  of 
autumn  flowers  that  decorated  the  wall. 
Certainly,  the  independence  of  furniture 
displayed  by  the  Japanese  is  most  enviable, 
and  frees  their  lives  of  many  cares.  Babies 
never  fall  out  of  bed,  because  there  are 
no  beds  ;  they  never  tip  themselves  over  in 
chairs,  for  a  similar  reason.  There  is  no- 
thing in  the  house  to  dust,  nothing  to  move 
when  you  sweep ;  there  is  no  dirt  brought 
into  the  house  on  muddy  boots  ;  and  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  the  meals  are 
served  hot  or  cold,  so  long  as  there  is  hot 
water  enough  to  make  tea.  The  chief 
worries  of  a  housekeeper's  life  are  abso- 
lutely non-existent  in  Japan,  except  as 
they  have  been  imported  from  abroad 
lately. 

But  this  is  a  digression,  and  I  must  get 
back  to  the  funeral.     When  we  entered  the 


WAITING  FOB  THE  PROCESSION.     43 

house,  we  were  greeted  most  cordially  by 
a  square,  cheerful -looking  little  old  wo- 
man, who  went  down  on  all  fours  and  put 
her  forehead  to  the  ground  as  a  token  of 
her  respect  for  us.  We  were  given  a  very 
comfortable  window,  from  which  we  could 
see  far  down  the  street,  and  catch  the  first 
glimpse  of  anything  there  was  to  be  seen  ; 
so  we  sat  there  and  waited,  and  watched 
the  funny  crowd  that  was  gathered  together 
under  the  windows.  As  soon  as  it  became 
noised  abroad  that  there  was  a  foreigner  in 
the  house,  the  crowd  became  as  much  inter- 
ested in  the  foreigner  as  they  were  in  the 
expected  funeral.  The  street  soon  began 
to  present  a  lively  appearance,  as  it  filled 
up  with  the  carriages  of  officials  driving 
out  to  the  cemetery,  and  with  various  lesser 
persons  in  kurumas,  and  military  men  on 
horseback.  After  a  while  groups  of  men, 
clothed  in  dark  blue  cotton  blouses  with 
curious  white  figures  on  them  and  gor- 
geous scarlet  stripes  on  their  shoulders, 
came  sauntering  by,  some  in  kurumas, 
some  on  foot.  They  had  some  connection 
with  the  funeral,  but  what,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  discover.  Then  there  was  another 
wait,  and  at  last  there   appeared   twelve 


44  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

conical  floral  structures,  each  as  large  as  a 
good-sized  Christmas-tree,  and  each  carried 
by  two  men.  These  passed,  and  were  fol- 
lowed by  more  of  the  blue  and  red  gen- 
tlemen before  described.  By  this  time  I 
began  to  be  uneasy  lest  I  should  be  late  to 
school,  so  at  last,  when  the  hands  of  my 
watch  pointed  to  9.30  and  no  sign  of  a 
procession  was  visible  down  the  street,  we 
were  obliged  to  leave,  much  disappointed 
to  have  missed  one  of  the  greatest  funeral 
processions  ever  seen  in  Tokyo.  But  our 
disappointment  was  not  destined  to  last 
very  long,  for  just  as  we  wrere  turning 
off  from  the  line  of  march  the  procession 
reached  us,  and  we  stopped  to  see  it  go  by. 
First  came  the  police  force.  It  could 
hardly  have  been  simply  the  Tokyo  force, 
for  there  were  thousands  of  men.  They 
looked  very  sombre,  marching  along  in 
heavy  ulsters,  with  pointed  hoods  drawn 
up  over  their  heads  to  keep  off  the  rain, 
—  more  like  a  company  of  cowled  monks 
than  policemen.  After  they  had  passed, 
there  came  a  squad  of  soldiers,  with  white, 
bristly  plumes  in  their  caps,  and  one  or 
two  buglers,  who  played  weird  music  of 
an  extremely  melancholy  character.     The 


POSTHUMOUS  TITLES.  45 

instruments  were  European,  but  I  think 
the  music  must  have  been  Japanese.  After 
the  soldiers  came  a  body  of  white-robed 
men,  dressed  like  Shinto  priests,  and  in 
their  midst,  carried  by  two  bearers,  a  white, 
wooden  box  decorated  with  white  paper, 
cut  as  one  sees  it  in  the  Shinto  temples. 
This  box,  which  was  quite  large  and  carried 
like  a  kago,  hung  from  a  pole,  supported 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  bearers,  I  supposed 
at  the  time  to  be  the  coffin,  but  I  learned 
afterwards  that  it  contained  valuables  be- 
longing to  the  deceased,  which  were  to  be 
buried  with  him.  Behind  the  box  came 
men  carrying  red  and  white  flags,  in- 
scribed with  the  names  and  titles  of  the 
dead  man,  including  his  posthumous  titles, 
given  him  by  the  Emperor  immediately 
after  death.  I  have  seen  by  the  papers 
that  from  the  beginning  of  the  illness  of 
the  dead  viscount,  the  Emperor  had  been 
heaping  titles  and  promotions  upon  him. 
The  more  hopeless  his  case  became,  the 
more  honors  he  received,  until,  after  his 
death,  the  highest  title  of  all  was  bestowed. 
Then  followed  an  apparently  endless  pro- 
cession of  huge  bouquets,  like  the  first 
that  had  appeared  an  hour  or  more  before 


46  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

the  rest  of  the  procession.  These  bouquets 
are  sent  as  gifts  by  the  friends  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  upon  the  standard  of  each  is 
inscribed  the  name  of  the  sender  in  large 
letters,  that  he  who  runs  may  read.  In 
Japan,  whoever  sends  flowers  to  a  funeral 
hires  also  two  white-robed  men  to  carry 
his  offering  in  the  procession.  It  is  this 
custom  that  forms  a  part  of  the  great 
expense  of  Japanese  funerals  as  now  con- 
ducted, for  the  more  flowers  there  are  to 
carry  through  the  streets,  the  greater  the 
honor  shown  the  dead. 

That  was  all  that  I  saw  of  the  funeral, 
for  when  I  was  obliged  to  hurry  off  at  last 
to  my  class,  the  street  as  far  as  I  could 
see  in  either  direction  was  a  tossing  tide 
of  flowers,  a  beautiful  sight  in  spite  of  the 
gray  sky  and  heavy  rain. 

November  4. 

Yesterday  was  the  Emperor's  birthday, 
one  of  the  greatest  holidays  in  the  Japan- 
ese calendar.  At  half  past  seven  o'clock 
Mine  and  I  started  out  in  our  kurumas  to 
go  first  to  Yuki's  house  and  pick  up  the 
children,  and  then  out  to  the  great  parade 
ground  at  Aoyama  to  see  the  Emperor  re- 
view the  troops,  on  one  of  the  few  occasions 


THE  EMPEROR'S  BIRTHDAY.  47 

when  he  appears  in  public  as  the  actual 
commander  of  his  own  army.  Even  at 
that  early  hour  the  streets  were  very  gay. 
The  red  and  white  Japanese  flag  adorned 
every  house ;  the  people  were  all  out  in 
their  holiday  clothes.  Horsemen  in  dress 
uniforms,  squads  of  soldiers  furbished  up 
in  every  possible  way,  courtiers  and  nobles 
in  gold-laced  court  suits  and  cocked  hats 
trimmed  with  gold  lace  and  ostrich  feath- 
ers, were  hurrying  in  the  direction  of  the 
parade  ground.  In  the  midst  of  the  crowd 
we  met  our  three  little  friends  in  their  ku- 
rumas.  They  had  started  out  early  to  come 
for  us  and  save  us  the  trouble  of  calling 
for  them,  so  we  turned  around  and  went  on 
with  the  stream  of  people,  a  crowd  that  grew 
larger  and  more  picturesque  as  we  came 
nearer  to  our  destination.  Thanks  to  the 
influence  of  friends  at  court,  we  were  not 
halted  on  the  edge  of  the  ground  like  the 
rest  of  the  crowd,  but  on  presenting  a  pass 
were  conducted  by  various  deferential  red- 
pantalooned  soldiers  along  two  sides  of  the 
great  parade  ground,  and  finally  handed 
over  to  the  Minister  of  War  himself. 

He  was  gorgeously   dressed  in  a  mag- 
nificent modern  uniform  heavily  trimmed 


48  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

with  gold  lace,  which  made  a  great  show 
on  his  ample  chest,  for  he  is  a  large  man, 
unlike  the  majority  of  his  countrymen. 
Wherever  the  gold  lace  did  not  cover  his 
coat,  he  was  adorned  with  orders  and 
medals.  He  was  delightfully  polite  to  us, 
shook  hands  with  me  warmly,  and  con- 
ducted us  into  a  tent  next  door  to  the 
Emperor's  pavilion,  where  chairs  were  set, 
and  where  we  waited  a  little  while  almost 
alone,  for  we  were  quite  early,  and  hardly 
any  one  else  had  come.  At  last  the  tent 
began  to  fill  up,  and  we  found  ourselves 
surrounded  by  princes,  counts,  viscounts, 
barons,  foreign  ministers,  etc.  I  have  not 
lived  long  enough  in  Japan  to  be  much 
overpowered  by  titles,  so  I  bore  up  bravely, 
and  congratulated  myself  upon  having  so 
good  a  place  from  which  to  see  what  was 
going  on.  The  glare  of  gold  lace  was  some- 
thing astonishing,  and  seemed  to  please 
the  children  very  much.  Perhaps  the  most 
interesting  person  to  me  in  the  company  was 
a  Chinese  lady,  the  only  real  small-footed 
specimen  that  I  have  ever  seen.  She 
drove  up  to  the  tent  in  her  carriage,  from 
which  she  toddled  with  some  difficulty  to 
a  seat,  assisted  on  each  side  by  a  servant. 


A  NANKIN  FOREIGNER.  49 

She  had  a  doll-like  face,  delicately  painted 
and  shaped  like  the  full  moon,  and  was  beau- 
tifully dressed  in  rustling  silks,  though  the 
style  of  dress  is  to  my  mind  not  nearly  so 
graceful  as  that  of  Japan.  She  sat  only  a 
little  while  in  the  tent,  and  long  before  the 
Emperor  appeared  or  the  show  began,  she 
toddled  back  to  her  carriage  and  drove 
away.  Among  the  guests  in  the  tent  there 
wrere  a  few  portly  and  impressive  China- 
men in  magnificent  silk  robes,  members  of 
the  Chinese  Legation,  who  strutted  about 
writh  an  air  of  owning  the  earth.  It  is 
that  air  that  makes  the  Chinamen  thor- 
oughly hated  by  all  outside  nations  with 
whom  they  have  to  do.  Bot5  chap  ex- 
pressed the  feeling  they  engender  when 
he  lifted  his  small  finger  wrath  fully  at  one 
of  the  big  Celestials,  and  said  quite  loudly 
in  Japanese,  "  There 5s  a  Nankin  foreigner. 
Kick  him  out !  " 

There  were  a  good  many  English  people 
there  and  a  few  Americans,  so  that  much 
of  the  conversation  was  carried  on  in  Eng- 
lish, and  it  was  quite  a  pleasure  to  be  able 
to  understand  what  people  were  saying. 
However,  the  foreigners  were  so  tall  that 
I  had  not  the  advantage  of  being  able  to 


50  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

see  over  their  heads  that  I  have  in  a  Jap- 
anese crowd,  and  which  I  am  beginning 
to  regard  as  my  natural  right. 

At  last  there  was  a  sound  of  horses' 
hoofs  and  a  blare  of  trumpets,  aud  then 
every  one  began  to  try  to  push  ahead  of 
every  one  else,  but,  fortunately,  we  with  the 
children  were  wTell  in  front,  where  we  could 
see  everything.  A  gorgeous  state  coach 
drove  up,  with  two  red-liveried  men  in  front 
and  two  behind,  and  a  mounted  guard,  with 
small  red  and  white  banners,  galloping  on 
each  side.  The  coach  stopped  almost  in 
front  of  us,  and  out  of  it  came  the  Emperor 
himself,  the  direct  descendant  of  the  gods 
and  the  Son  of  Heaven,  regarded  still  by 
his  people  as  an  object  of  worship.  He 
did  not  look  to  me  so  very  different  from 
other  people.  He  is  lighter  than  the  aver- 
age Japanese  man,  or  rather,  I  should 
say  he  looked  to  me  lighter,  because  I 
have  heard  other  foreigners  say  that  he  is 
really  darker  than  most  of  his  people. 
His  features  are  strongly  marked  and  heavy 
—  something  after  the  Inca  type ;  per- 
haps because  both  the  Mikados  and  the 
Inca  kings  claim  to  be  "  Children  of  the 
Sun," 


AN  IMPERIAL  HORSEMAN.  51 

When  the  Emperor  had  gone  into  his 
pavilion,  the  coach  drove  away,  and  the  gen- 
erals and  staff  officers  came  hurrying  by  to 
mount  their  horses.  Bot5  chan  spied  his 
father  among  the  others  and  made  a  wild 
rush  after  him,  but  was  caught  and  brought 
back  to  his  place  by  his  valet,  while  the 
whole  company  of  hurrying  officers  shouted 
over  his  escapade.  Soon  there  was  another 
blare  of  trumpets,  and  a  gorgeous  company 
rode  by  on  horseback.  First  came  the 
standard-bearer  with  the  imperial  ensign, 
a  white  chrysanthemum  on  a  red  silk 
ground.  Then  on  a  graceful  little  brown 
Arab  with  gold  bridle  and  trappings  rode 
his  Imperial  Majesty.  He  is  a  skillful  and 
daring  horseman,  it  is  said,  but  he  rides 
in  the  old  Japanese  style,  sitting  all  in  a 
heap  like  a  bag  of  meal,  his  legs  dangling 
straight  down  on  each  side  of  the  horse, 
and  his  elbows  twitching  and  jerking  with 
every  motion  of  the  animal.  Even  a  de- 
scendant of  the  gods  and  Son  of  Heaven 
could  not  make  this  style  of  riding  digni- 
fied, according  to  our  ideas.  After  the 
Emperor  came  the  generals,  with  the  Min- 
ister of  War  at  the  head,  and  the  whole 
party  made  the  circuit  of  the  field  together, 


52  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

coming  back  to  take  up  their  station  close 
by  us,  so  near  that  if  I  had  had  anything 
to  say  to  the  Emperor  I  could  have  said 
it  without  raising  my  voice.  There  he 
sat  for  an  hour  or  more,  while  the  troops 
marched  by  him ;  and  as  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  entire  Japanese  army  is 
stationed  in  Tokyo,  this  really  gave  me  time 
to  study  the  Emperor's  appearance  and 
dress  pretty  carefully.  He  wore  a  very 
fine  uniform,  not  unlike  that  of  his  officers, 
except  that  he  had  a  wider  gold  belt  than 
the  rest  and  a  fluffier  plume  on  his  cap. 
He  could  be  distinguished  anywhere  in  the 
field  from  the  others  by  a  broad  pink  band, 
which  passed  from  his  waist  over  his  right 
shoulder,  and  by  the  more  gorgeous  trap- 
pings of  his  horse.  It  seems  that  on  his 
birthday  the  Emperor  has  an  exhausting 
time  of  it.  He  has  to  get  up  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  bathe  himself  in  a  careful 
and  ceremonial  manner,  and  dress  himself 
in  some  peculiar  and  ancient  costume. 
Thus  attired,  and  accompanied  by  the  high 
officers  of  his  household,  he  repairs  to  a 
shrine  within  the  court  inclosure,  and  there 
performs  a  solemn  service  to  the  souls  of 
his  ancestors.     This  must  be  done  fasting. 


THE  BIRTHDAY  PROGRAMME.  53 

The  Emperor  enters  the  shrine  alone,  his 
officers  waiting  without  during  the  cere- 
mony. 

This  done,  Old  Japan  steps  aside  for  a 
while,  and  the  Emperor  of  New  Japan  must 
change  his  antique  dress  and  don  the  mod- 
ern uniform,  and  show  himself  before  all 
the  people,  as  he  sits  for  hours  on  his  little 
Arab,  reviewing  his  thousands  of  well-dis- 
ciplined troops  with  their  modern  arms, 
uniforms,  and  accoutrements.  When  that 
is  over,  he  goes  back  to  the  palace,  takes 
breakfast  with  his  ministers,  and  receives 
all  his  officers,  high  and  low.  This  pro- 
gramme keeps  him  busy  from  early  in  the 
morning  until  some  time  in  the  afternoon, 
and  makes  as  long  and  tiresome  a  day's 
work  as  any  emperor  would  care  to  per- 
form, I  should  think. 

The  review  was  over  at  last,  and  a  most 
uncommonly  good  show  it  was;  the  Em- 
peror dismounted  and  stepped  into  his 
carriage,  and  the  red  and  white  banners, 
the  black  horses,  the  red  coachmen,  and 
the  gorgeous  coach  vanished  amid  the 
blowing  of  trumpets  and  the  lifting  of 
hats.  Then  there  was  a  scramble  to  see 
who  wrould   get   off  the   field   first.     We 


54  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

sent  for  our  kurumas  to  come  to  us,  as 
we  did  not  like  to  take  the  little  children 
through  the  crowd,  but  after  waiting  for 
nearly  half  an  hour  Mine  hired  another 
kuruma  and  hurried  off  to  school,  while  I, 
with  the  two  little  ones  and  two  men-ser- 
vants, plunged  into  the  crowd,  where  we  at 
last  found  our  kurumas  and  went  home. 
There  was  only  time  to  change  my  dress, 
eat  my  lunch,  and  hurry  over  to  school  for 
the  afternoon  exercises.  The  pupils  were 
all  there,  and  the  guests  had  begun  to  ar- 
rive, when  I  reached  the  schoolhouse,  and 
all  looked  very  gay  and  festive  in  their  best 
dresses,  though  some  of  the  efforts  at  for- 
eign dress  were  rather  pathetic  than  beau- 
tiful. The  whole  school  was  obliged  to 
spend  an  unconscionable  time  waiting  in 
the  playground  for  the  signal  to  be  given 
us  to  go  into  the  assembly  room.  It  was 
cold,  and  we  had  neither  wraps  nor  head 
coverings,  and  it  seemed  to  me  a  cruel 
exposure  of  so  many  delicate  girls.  At 
last,  however,  we  were  allowed  to  march 
into  the  open  and  chilly  gymnasium  that 
serves  the  school  for  an  assembly  room. 
All  the  pupils  sat  together,  and  the  teach- 
ers together,   and  then   facing  them,   in 


THE  SCHOOL  CELEBRATION.  55 

the  place  where  the  platform  would  have 
been  if  there  had  been  any,  were  chairs 
for  the  visitors.  These  soon  began  to  be 
filled  with  gorgeous  beings  in  court  suits, 
fathers  of  our  girls,  who  had  come  over 
to  see  us  after  paying  their  respects  to 
the  Emperor.  There  were  also  a  few 
ladies,  mothers  of  our  children,  handsomely 
dressed  in  foreign  costumes,  many  of  them 
probably  imported  from  Paris.  When  all 
were  seated,  a  chord  on  the  piano  gave  the 
signal  for  the  teachers  and  pupils  to  rise ; 
at  a  second  chord  we  bowed  to  our  guests, 
and  at  a  third  we  sat  down. 

The  first  performance  on  the  programme 
was  a  song,  the  words  of  which  were  com- 
posed by  Baron  Takasaki,  the  court  poet, 
and  the  music  by  one  of  the  court  musi- 
cians. It  was  written  expressly  for  the 
day,  and  sung  by  all  the  schools  throughout 
the  country.  The  music,  though  com- 
posed by  a  Japanese,  is  in  foreign  style, 
and  the  words  are  rhythmically  arranged, 
though  I  do  not  think  they  are  made  to 
rhyme. 

When  Japanese  attempt  to  sing  foreign 
music,  they  do  not  exactly  sing,  they  buzz. 
There  is  a  peculiar  quality  in  their  voices 


56  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

that  reminds  me  of  the  description  of  the 
song  of  the  Bluebottle  Plies  in  Edward 
Lear's  delightful  "  Nonsense  Book."  Our 
scholars  sang  this  song  with  great  mechan- 
ical precision,  but  absolutely  without  ex- 
pression or  any  apparent  enjoyment.  It 
was  as  different  as  possible  from  the  sing- 
ing of  our  Hampton  pickaninnies,  with 
their  sweet,  clear  voices  and  pathetic  quick- 
ness of  sympathy  with  the  feeling  of  the 
music. 

During  the  singing  the  gold-laced  audi- 
ence looked  a  little  bored,  and  were  dis- 
tinctly relieved  when  it  was  over.  Then 
three  little  girls  came  forward  and  seated 
themselves  at  three  kotos,  that  were  ar- 
ranged in  front  of  the  audience. 

The  koto  is  the  Japanese  piano,  a  long, 
stringed  instrument,  lying  horizontally, 
and  played  with  ivory  tips  fastened  to  the 
fingers.  It  is  to  me  much  the  most  agree- 
able of  Japanese  instruments,  and  has  con- 
siderable power  to  soothe  even  my  savage 
breast.  It  is  very  pretty  to  watch  three 
performers  playing  together  as  these  chil- 
dren did,  for  the  motions  are  exceedingly 
graceful,  rather  more  like  those  of  a  harper 
than   a  pianist.     The   little   girls   sang  a 


A  BOX  OF  CANDY.  57 

Japanese  song1,  very  high   and   nasal,  but 
with  some  pleasing  strains. 

Other  musical  performances  followed,  the 
Japanese  and  foreign  styles  alternating  on 
the  programme,  and  at  last  the  school, 
teachers,  and  guests  rose,  and  all  heads 
were  bowed  while  the  school  sang  the  little 
song  written  expressly  for  them  by  the 
Empress  herself.  Then  the  guests  departed 
and  the  girls  marched  out,  and  everything 
was  over.  It  took  some  time  for  all  our 
magnificent  visitors  to  get  into  their  car- 
riages and  off,  and  after  they  were  gone 
the  Japanese  teachers  stayed  and  ate  some 
lunch  that  had  been  sent  over  from  the 
palace  to  the  school,  what  was  left  from 
the  Emperor's  breakfast.  I  did  not  stay, 
as  I  had  had  my  lunch  before  coming  to 
school,  and  the  teachers  warned  me  that 
the  imperial  lunch  was  not  likely  to  suit 
the  foreign  palate.  I  took  with  me  when 
I  went  home  a  marvelous  box  of  candy, 
containing  two  perfectly  imitated  green 
oranges,  each  with  a  little  bunch  of  leaves, 
a  large  white  sugar  chrysanthemum,  and 
a  lump  of  green  bean  marmalade,  frosted 
with  pink,  sweet  vermicelli.     I  presented 


58  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

them  this  morning  to  my  cook  to  give  his 
children,  as,  though  they  were  beautiful  to 
look  at,  they  were  too  sweet  and  tasteless 
to  suit  the  foreign  palate. 


CHAPTEE   IV. 
November  12  to  14. 

A  No  Performance.  —  Death   of   Prince  Aki.  —  Dango 

Zaka. 

Tokyo,  November  123  1888. 

Last  Wednesday  I  went  to  a  No  per- 
formance, and  enjoyed  it  immensely.  The 
No  is  a  musical  and  theatrical  performance, 
somewhat  religious  in  its  character,  I 
believe,  and  very  ancient  in  its  origin.  It 
is  the  only  theatrical  performance  that  it 
is  proper  for  the  Empress  and  the  higher 
nobility  to  attend.  The  No  is  held  very 
often  in  this  city  on  Sunday,  but  so  far  I 
had  not  attended  it,  as  I  still  prefer  to 
take  entertainments  of  a  dramatic  kind  on 
week-days,  and  to  keep  my  Sundays  for 
other  uses.  Fortunately,  however,  for  me 
and  my  principles,  Yuki  discovered  that 
there  was  to  be  a  special  performance  on 
the  occasion  of  the  annual  festival  at  a 
shrine  not  far  from  where  we  live  ;  so, 
though  she  could  not  go  herself,  she  sent 


60  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

one  of  her  servants  with  me  to  take  care 
of  me,  and  I  had  a  very  pleasant  after- 
noon. 

The  approach  to  the  place  was  about  as 
entertaining'  as  the  show  itself,  for  all  the 
streets  surrounding  the  temple  inclosure 
were  crowded  with  people,  and  on  each 
side  of  the  street  were  little  booths,  some 
containing  toys  and  other  knickknacks 
for  sale,  and  others  the  headquarters  of 
small  side-shows.  The  nature  and  attrac- 
tions of  these  shows  were  set  forth  in  pic- 
tures hung  without  the  booths,  after  the 
manner  of  the  "  pink-eyed  lady,  Proosian 
dwarf,  and  livin'  skeleton "  of  our  own 
circuses,  except  that  the  pictures  were  of 
such  a  new  and  interesting  character  that 
I  should  certainly  have  spent  most  of  the 
afternoon  in  looking  at  the  side-shows,  if 
my  guide  had  understood  English,  and  I 
could  have  made  him  know  what  I  wanted. 
As  it  was,  I  could  not  stop,  but  went  on 
through  the  funny  crowd,  and  by  the  funny 
pictures,  into  the  great  inclosure  where 
the  main  show  wras  to  be  held.  Here  we 
alighted  from  our  kurumas  and  walked, 
followed  by  the  usual  multitude,  for  my 
personal  appearance  excites  great  interest 


WITHIN  THE  TEMPLE  GROUNDS.      61 

among'  the  plebeian  Japanese.  There  was 
an  immense  concourse  in  one  part  of  the 
temple  grounds,  and  toward  this  nucleus 
all  new-comers  seemed  to  be  drifting*.  To 
the  edge  of  this  we  also  drifted,  and  here 
the  man  left  me  for  a  few  minutes,  while 
he  went  off  to  secure  me  a  seat.  When  he 
came  back,  I  was  the  centre  of  a  group 
of  children,  who  had  gathered  about  me 
and  were  carefully  studying  every  detail 
of  my  costume.  He  drove  the  children 
away,  and  carried  me  off  and  over  to  the 
temple  itself.  Up  and  down  the  long, 
steep  flights  of  steps  were  streams  of 
people  ascending  and  descending,  like  the 
angels  on  Jacob's  ladder.  Here  my  escort 
left  me  again,  and  at  once  all  the  angels 
deserted  the  ladder  and  came  crowding 
about  me,  while  I  stood  and  tried  to  look 
as  if  I  were  unconscious  of  everything  for 
about  ten  minutes.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
my  guide  returned,  and  brought  with  him  a 
man  carrying  a  ticket  and  a  chair.  Then  we 
moved  on,  but  in  a  moment  or  two  stopped 
at  a  small  house,  from  which  the  man 
with  the  ticket  procured  a  coolie  to  carry 
the  chair.  Once  more  we  moved  on,  the 
chair-coolie  in  front,  the  ticket  man  next, 


62  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

I  meekly  following  him,  and  my  original 
escort  guarding  the  rear  of  the  procession. 
Soon  we  were  in  the  thick  of  the  crowd 
and  squirming  our  way  through  it,  the 
coolie  in  advance,  grunting  fiercely,  and 
using  the  chair  as  an  entering  wedge. 
We  found  ourselves  after  a  while  under 
a  kind  of  scaffolding  loaded  with  people. 
The  coolie  climbed  up  a  short  ladder  and 
through  a  very  small  hole,  deposited  the 
chair,  and  came  back.  Then  the  ticket- 
man  indicated  to  me  that  I  was  to  climb 
the  ladder,  which  I  did.  But  when  it 
came  to  crawling  through  the  small  hole, 
with  my  high  hat  and  my  bulky  foreign 
dress,  I  could  not  do  it.  First  I  stove  in 
the  crown  of  my  hat,  then  I  stuck  igno- 
miniously,  with  my  head  and  shoulders 
through  the  hole,  until  a  kindly  soldier 
above  and  my  own  retainers  below  suc- 
ceeded in  pulling  and  pushing  me  through. 
Once  through,  I  found  myself  in  the  best 
seat  in  the  place.  You  cannot  call  it  a 
house,  because,  though  the  scaffolding  on 
which  I  sat  wras  roofed  over,  most  of  the 
audience  sat  on  the  ground  out  of  doors. 
This  scaffolding,  through  the  floor  of  which 
I  had  been  so  laboriously  pushed  and  pulled, 


THEATRE  STAGE.  63 

was  built  in  the  form  of  a  hollow  square, 
three  sides  of  which,  roofed  over  and  di- 
vided into  boxes,  formed  the  grand  stand 
for  the  elite  of  the  audience.  The  fourth 
side  contained  the  stage,  a  roofed  and 
matted  square,  joined  with  the  dressing- 
room  at  the  left  by  an  open  gallery,  in 
which  much  of  the  action  of  the  play  took 
place.  The  dressing-room  was  separated 
from  this  gallery  by  a  curtain,  which  was 
lifted  for  the  performers  to  make  their 
entrances  and  exits,  but  kept  closed  the  rest 
of  the  time.  The  actor  often  began  to 
sing  or  speak  while  still  in  the  dressing- 
room,  and  in  making  his  entrance  could  be 
seen  walking  very  slowly  along  the  gallery 
on  his  way  to  the  stage,  which  occupied 
the  centre  of  its  side  of  the  square.  A  lit- 
tle door  at  the  right  of  the  stage  occasion- 
ally afforded  means  of  exit  for  the  actors. 
The  space  between  this  door  and  the  cor- 
ner was  screened  from  the  public  gaze  by 
a  high  board  fence.  The  whole  space  be- 
tween the  private  boxes  on  the  scaffolding 
and  the  stage  was  unroofed  and  unfloored, 
but  filled  with  the  common  people,  seated 
on  mats  on  the  ground,  eating,  drinking 
tea,  smoking,  and  walking  about  in  the 


64  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

most  delightfully  sociable  manner.  It  was 
fun  enough  to  watch  this  part  of  the  audi- 
ence when  there  was  nothing  especially 
interesting  being  done  on  the  stage. 

At  my  left,  a  box  draped  with  purple  cur- 
tains, upon  which  was  stamped  the  white 
chrysanthemum,  was  evidently  reserved  for 
the  imperial  family.  Prince  Haru  occupied 
it  for  a  little  while,  but  during  most  of  the 
afternoon  it  was  vacant. 

Though  I  had  no  one  to  explain  anything 
to  me,  I  found  the  performance  most  inter- 
esting. It  was  something  like  the  ancient 
Greek  drama  in  many  ways,  but  in  other 
respects  perhaps  more  like  the  early  Eng- 
lish plays.  During  most  of  the  perform- 
ances there  was  a  chorus  of  some  twenty 
uniformed  men,  dressed  in  dark  blue  with 
some  lighter  blue  decorations.  These  men 
sat  motionless  on  the  floor  at  the  right  of 
the  stage,  in  two  lines,  and  never  stirred 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  scene. 
They  sang  occasionally,  very  sweetly,  some- 
,  times  alone,  sometimes  as  a  sort  of  accom- 
paniment to  some  of  the  actors.  There 
were  three  or  four  instrumental  musicians, 
too,  who  sat  on  stools  at  the  back  of  the 
stage.      Their    instruments    were   mostly 


MUSICIANS  AND  CHORUS.  65 

drums,  shaped  like  hour-glasses,  but  there 
was  one  man  who  played  a  pipe.  The 
drummers  held  their  drums  on  their  knees 
and  spanked  them  with  the  palms  of  their 
hands,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  vent  to 
yells  or  howls  that  sounded  as  cheerful  and 
musical  as  the  wail  of  a  homesick  dog. 

At  the  left,  at  the  very  back  of  the  stage, 
as  close  against  the  wall  as  they  could  sit, 
were  two  or  three  men  dressed  exactly  like 
the  musicians,  whose  raison  d'etre  I  did  not 
at  first  discover.  I  found  out,  however, 
as  the  performance  went  on,  that  these 
men  were  dressers  to  the  actors,  who  went 
and  stood  in  front  of  them,  and  with  their 
backs  to  the  audience,  when  they  were  in 
need  of  repairs  or  slight  changes  of  cos- 
tume of  any  kind.  Beside  this,  the  men 
occasionally  moved  stealthily  across  the 
stage  to  pick  up  and  remove  anything 
dropped  by  the  actors  that  would  not  be 
needed  again,  thus  keeping  the  stage  tidy 
all  the  time. 

So  much  for  the  stage  and  its  furnish- 
ings :  now  for  the  performances.  When 
I  reached  the  place,  the  programme  was 
already  under  way,  and  a  weird  figure  in 
a  mask,  with  a  profusion  of  long,  black 


66  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

hair,  was  holding  a  musical  controversy 
with  two  elderly  gentlemen,  assisted  by 
the  chorus  and  the  drummers.  I  could 
not  understand  much  about  it,  but  the  dis- 
pute seemed  to  end  in  the  complete  rout 
of  the  long-haired  demon,  who  fled  inglo- 
riously  off  the  stage,  followed  by  his  two 
opponents  and  the  chorus  and  orchestra. 

The  next  scene  was  a  sort  of  a  farce,  as 
nearly  as  I  could  judge,  and  in  this  scene 
there  was  no  chorus.  There  was  a  fine 
young  lord  with  two  retainers,  to  whom  he 
seemed  to  be  giving  orders.  One  of  these 
retainers  was  the  funny  man,  and  he  cer- 
tainly was  very  funny.  After  a  good  many 
speeches,  by  which  he  put  the  audience 
into  roars  of  laughter,  and  during  which 
his  tones,  looks,  and  gestures  were  enough 
to  keep  me  thoroughly  amused,  he  went  to 
the  back  of  the  stage,  took  a  piece  of  white 
cloth  from  one  of  the  motionless  property- 
men,  and  brought  it  forward  to  his  master. 
Then  they  both  sat  down,  and  he  went  vig- 
orously to  work  twisting  the  piece  of  white 
cloth  into  a  rope.  But  he  was  so  very  fond 
of  hearing  his  own  voice  that  he  kept  for- 
getting his  work,  and  then  coming  back  to 
it  with  a  great  show  of  industry.     After  a 


A  FARCE.  67 

while  the  master  got  up  and  stole  quietly 
out,  but  the  servant  kept  on  addressing  the 
audience  in  the  most  confidential  manner, 
twisting  away  on  his  work  spasmodically. 
While  he  was  talking,  the  other  servant 
came  quietly  in  and  sat  down  behind  the 
talker,  who  was  entirely  unconscious  of  his 
presence.  The  listener  at  last  became  much 
excited  over  some  revelations  that  the  old 
gabbler  was  making,  and  listened  eagerly, 
then  lifted  his  hand  to  strike  the  man,  but 
refrained  through  his  desire  to  hear  more. 
The  old  fellow  talked  on,  utterly  unconscious 
of  the  pantomime  that  was  being  enacted 
behind  his  back,  until  at  last  his  fellow-ser- 
vant could  restrain  his  rage  no  longer  and 
struck  the  old  rogue.  Then  there  was  a 
lively  scene.  The  talker  was  a  coward.  He 
begged  pardon.  He  ran  around  the  stage. 
He  did  everything  he  could  to  show  that  he 
was  sorry.  But  his  fellow-servant  was  obdu- 
rate, and  chased  him  off  the  stage  amid  the 
delighted  roars  of  the  audience.  The  old 
man's  acting  wras  wonderfully  good,  as, 
indeed,  was  all  the  acting  that  I  saw. 

The  next  scene  wTas,  I  think,  historical, 
taking  up  some  events  in  the  early  life  of 
Yoshitsune,  one  of  Japan's  greatest  heroes. 


68  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

The  principal  performer  was  a  little  boy, 
who  took  the  part  of  Yoshitsune.  He  had 
a  sweet,  high  voice,  which  varied  pleasantly 
the  monotony  of  the  men's  deep  chanting. 
In  this  scene  the  chorus  and  orchestra 
were  once  more  in  their  places.  The  first 
part  of  the  act  was  stately  and  solemn,  but 
toward  the  end  Yoshitsune  took  up  his 
stand  at  the  right  of  the  stage,  in  the  cor- 
ner, just  in  front  of  the  orchestra,  and  there 
with  drawn  sword  awaited  whoever  might 
try  to  pass.  It  was  supposed  to  be  dark, 
although  the  sun  was  actually  shining  di- 
rectly on  the  stage.  After  Yoshitsune  had 
stood  in  the  corner  a  little  while,  three 
strange  figures  issued  from  the  dressing- 
room  and  crept  slowly  along  the  gallery. 
They  were  dressed  in  the  most  fantastic 
manner,  and  I  am  not  sure  whether  they 
were  intended  for  beggars  or  highwaymen. 
When  they  came  to  the  end  of  the  gallery, 
they  halted,  peered  forward  into  the  im- 
aginary darkness  of  the  stage,  and  at  last 
seemed  to  conclude  that  they  needed  lights. 
So  they  turned  their  backs  to  the  audience, 
and  the  convenient  property-men  supplied 
each  of  them  writh  a  stick,  at  the  end  of 
which  a  tassel  of  red  horsehair  represented 


YOSHITSUNE.  69 

the  flame  of  a  torch.  After  some  hesitation 
and  talk,  one  of  the  men  groped  his  way 
on  to  the  stage,  waving  his  horsehair  torch 
wildly  before  him.  He  gradually  felt  his 
way  across  to  the  spot  wrhere  Yoshitsune 
was  standing,  and  thrust  his  horsehair 
torch  into  the  very  face  of  the  little  hero, 
who  thereupon  lifted  his  sword  and  knocked 
the  torch  out  of  the  man's  hand.  The  man 
himself,  scared  out  of  his  writs,  rolled  over 
and  over  on  the  floor,  and  at  last  crawled, 
yelling,  back  to  his  companions,  and  told 
them  of  his  terrifying  adventure.  The 
others  laughed  at  him  and  made  great 
game  of  him,  and  a  second  one  essayed  to 
brave  the  terrors  of  the  stage.  He  came 
on  a  little  more  boldly  than  his  predecessor, 
but  still  with  great  circumspection.  When 
he  came  near  Yoshitsune's  corner,  the 
boy  lifted  his  foot  and  brought  it  down 
with  a  sudden  stamp,  and  the  poor  beggar 
was  so  alarmed  that  he  dropped  his  torch, 
rolled  over  on  his  back,  and  there  lay  howl- 
ing helplessly,  until  his  companions  came 
and  dragged  him  back  to  the  gallery  again. 
Then  the  third  man  came  on,  and  received 
such  a  thrashing  from  the  little  boy  that 
he  was  carried  off  by  his  friends  almost  in- 


70  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

sensible.  Discouraged  by  this  last  repulse, 
the  three  beggars  went  out  of  the  little 
door  at  the  right,  leaving  Yoshitsune  once 
more  in  solitary  possession  of  the  stage. 
But  very  soon  the  dressing-room  curtain 
was  raised,  and  an  imposing  procession  of 
warriors,  armed  with  swords  and  spears, 
came  marching  slowly  along  the  gallery. 
They  were  dressed  in  armor,  and  were 
led  by  a  ferocious-looking  captain.  They 
stopped  in  the  gallery  just  before  reaching 
the  stage  and  held  a  council  of  war,  as  a 
result  of  which  a  big  fellow  with  a  long* 
spear  was  sent  ahead  to  reconnoitre.  He 
groped  his  way  cautiously  forward  through 
the  darkness,  but  was  met  in  the  middle 
of  the  stage  by  the  small  boy,  who  fell 
upon  him  with  his  short  sword,  avoiding 
the  thrusts  of  the  warrior's  long  spear  by 
nimbly  hopping  over  it,  as  if  it  were  a  skip- 
ping rope.  It  was  a  most  comical  fencing 
match,  varied  by  the  big'  warrior's  turning 
somersaults  over  his  own  spear,  like  a 
clown  at  a  circus.  He  was  finally  killed, 
and  another  warrior  came  forward  to  take 
his  place,  when  the  dead  man  picked  him- 
self up  and  ran  off  the  stage,  making  his 
exit  by  the  little  door  on  the  right.     Then 


AN  UNCANNY  GUEST.  71 

the  little  boy  fought  single-handed  all  the 
warriors  in  the  gallery,  sometimes  van- 
quishing two  at  a  time.  All  the  fencing 
matches  were  varied  by  most  extraordi- 
nary tumbling,  which  excited  the  greatest 
enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  audience. 
When  the  small  boy  had  chased  his  last 
enemy,  the  fierce -looking  leader  of  the 
band,  along  the  gallery  and  into  the  dress- 
ing-room, the  fight  was  ended. 

The  next  scene  was  to  me  the  funniest 
of  all,  perhaps  because  I  could  understand 
it  better  than  the  rest.  It  was  after  this 
manner.  A  samurai  gentleman  appears 
on  the  scene  and  soliloquizes  for  a  little 
while.  Then  the  dressing-room  curtain 
opens  and  a  most  attractive  figure  comes 
gliding  along  the  gallery.  It  is  slender 
and  graceful,  and  elegantly  arrayed  in  a 
brocaded  silk  kimono,  but  its  head  is 
covered  by  a  beautiful  white  satin  gown, 
which  falls  over  the  face,  and  is  evidently 
held  in  place  by  the  wearer's  hands.  Sud- 
denly the  samurai  catches  sight  of  the 
gliding  figure,  and  is  evidently  smitten  by 
it.  He  apostrophizes  it  and  tries  to  induce 
it  to  come  nearer,  but  it  refuses,  and  at  last 
glides  silently  back  to  the  dressing-room. 


72  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

The  samurai  gentleman  is  much  disap- 
pointed, and  confides  his  grief  to  the  au- 
dience in  a  long  speech.  As  suddenly  as 
before,  the  figure  appears  again,  this  time 
at  the  right-hand  door,  glides  forward  to 
the  centre  of  the  stage,  and  stands  close 
to  the  man  before  he  becomes  aware  of  its 
presence.  When  he  sees  that  the  mysteri- 
ous being  has  returned,  he  utters  a  squeal 
of  joyful  surprise,  and  addresses  it.  He  is 
evidently  trying  to  make  her  show  her  face, 
but  she  shakes  her  head  and  refuses.  Then 
he  takes  her  by  the  shoulders  and  walks 
her  around  the  stage,  talking  to  her  coax- 
ingly  the  while,  but  she  is  still  obdurate. 
At  last  they  both  sit  down,  he  continuing 
his  efforts  to  make  her  show  her  face,  but 
without  success.  After  a  while  he  loses 
patience,  rushes  at  her,  and  tears  the  wrap- 
ping from  her  head,  then  drops  it  and  flees 
precipitately  across  the  stage,  for  the  face 
is  a  hideous,  distorted,  and  discolored  mask. 
He  has  evidently  been  wasting  his  atten- 
tions on  a  demon  of  the  most  unpleasant 
type.  The  unveiled  demon  pursues  him 
and  grasps  him  by  the  arm;  he  pushes  it 
awTay,  but  the  demon,  not  in  the  least  dis- 
couraged,  attacks   him  again,  and,  over- 


PRINCE  AKL  73 

come  with  terror,  the  valiant  samurai  runs 
off  the  stage,  closely  pursued  by  his  un- 
canny visitor. 

There  was  one  more  scene,  but  it  was 
quite  dark  on  the  stage  by  the  time  the 
performance  was  over,  so  I  did  not  get 
much  idea  of  it,  except  that  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  fighting  in  it.  I  have  writ- 
ten out  a  somewhat  detailed  description 
of  the  afternoon's  performances,  but  with 
all  I  have  said  I  am  afraid  I  have  given  no 
idea  of  the  gorgeous  costumes,  the  curious 
music,  and  the  graceful,  measured  move- 
ments of  the  actors,  which  gave  to  the 
entertainment  the  character  of  a  dance  as 
well  as  of  a  play. 

We  were  to  have  gone  to  the  Emperor's 
gardens  to-day  to  seethe  chrysanthemums, 
but  the  death  of  the  Emperor's  youngest 
son,  little  Prince  Aki,  has  put  a  stop  to  all 
festivities  for  the  present. 

November  14. 

Although  the  little  prince  died  on  Satur- 
day, for  some  inscrutable  reason  the  official 
announcement  of  his  death  was  not  made 
until  Monday  night,  and  then  it  stated 
that  he  died  at  half  past  two  on  Monday, 


74  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

in  spite  of  the  fact  that  every  one  knows 
that  he  died  on  Saturday.  When  our 
school  assembled  on  Tuesday  morning,  the 
announcement  was  made  to  the  pupils,  and 
they  were  dismissed  immediately. 

Yesterday  afternoon  I  went  down  to 
Dango  Zaka  to  see  the  chrysanthemum 
show,  which  is  one  of  the  sights  of  Tokyo 
at  this  season.  It  is  an  extraordinary 
sight,  and  quite  peculiar  to  Japan.  Beside 
the  beautiful  display  of  potted  chrysanthe- 
mums of  wonderful  colors  and  shapes,  there 
are  numerous  scenes,  historical,  mytholo- 
gical, etc.,  in  which  the  figures  and  laud- 
scapes  are  constructed  entirely  of  chrysan- 
themums. The  heads,  feet,  and  hands  of 
the  human  figures  are  of  papier-mache,  or 
some  similar  composition,  and  very  lifelike, 
but  the  draperies,  mountains,  waterfalls, 
and  animals  are  constructed  entirely  of 
these  plants,  their  many-colored  flowers 
woven  into  solid  masses.  Among  the 
scenes  represented  there  was  a  goddess 
rising  from  the  waves  and  showing  herself 
to  an  excited  group  of  men  in  a  balcony ; 
the  gods  dancing  before  the  cave  into 
which  the  sun  goddess  had  retired  to  sulk; 
Taiko  Sama  with  the  infant  Mikado  in  his 


BANGO  ZAKA.  75 

arms  receiving*  the  unwilling1  homage  of 
the  court ;  a  Buddhist  monk  seated  under 
an  immense  green  and  white  waterfall  and 
watched  over  by  guardian  spirits  in  mid-air; 
a  white  elephant  with  a  gayly  dressed  lady 
on  his  back ;  and  even  Bandai  San  in  a 
state  of  violent  eruption.  These  are  only 
a  few  of  the  many  scenes  scattered  through 
various  matted  sheds,  so  many  and  so  large 
that  it  was  an  afternoon's  work  to  visit 
them  all.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  find 
a  man  engaged  in  repairing  one  of  the 
figures,  or  rather  its  garment,  composed 
entirely  of  small,  yellow  flowTers  scattered 
about  on  a  background  of  green  leaves. 
I  watched  him  long  enough  to  see  exactly 
how  the  thing  was  put  together.  There 
is  a  bamboo  framework  in  the  required 
shape,  with  papier-mache  head,  hands,  and 
feet.  Into  this  framework  are  put  whole 
plants  in  full  flower,  their  roots  packed 
with  damp  earth  and  bound  about  with  bits 
of  soft  straw  matting.  The  stems,  wTith 
the  leaves  and  flowers,  are  then  pulled 
through  to  the  outside  of  the  frame,  and 
woven  by  dexterous  fingers  into  the  desired 
pattern.  The  figures  are  kept  in  the  shade 
and  watered  as  they  need  it,  and  the  plant 


76  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

goes  on  growing  and  blossoming  as  hap- 
pily as  if  it  were  not  forming  part  of  a 
drapery.  These  flower  structures,  as  you 
see,  are  quite  different  in  principle  from 
those  of  our  own  floral  designs,  in  which 
the  flowers  are  snipped  off,  run  through 
with  wires,  fastened  to  toothpicks,  and 
stuck  into  their  places,  to  wither  and  die 
prematurely,  for  the  sake  of  a  few  hours' 
decoration. 


CHAPTEE   V. 

November  25  to  December  18. 

A  Ball  at  the  Rokumei-kwan.  —  A  Tokyo  Story.  — 
Bot'  chan's  Studies  in  Physiognomy.  —  Thanksgiving 
and  Turkey.  —  Christmas  Carols.  —  Fuji-Yama.  —  The 
New  Palace.  —  Tokyo  Moats.  —  Bowing  to  Prince 
Haru. 

Tokyo,  November  25,  1888. 

The  past  week  has  been  quite  a  gay  one 
in  my  quiet  life.  I  do  not  know  whether 
I  told  you  that  I  had  been  invited  to  a 
ball  given  by  one  of  the  cabinet  minis- 
ters. It  was  held  at  the  Rokumei-kwan,  or 
Nobles'  Club.  The  building  is  in  foreign 
style,  and  handsomely  fitted  up  with  foreign 
furniture.  It  was  beautifully  decorated  for 
the  occasion  with  plants,  flowers,  and  flags, 
and  the  grounds  were  illuminated  with 
lanterns.  The  ball  was  given  for  the  for- 
eign naval  officers,  and  was  not  a  very 
large  one,  —  only  four  or  five  hundred  in- 
vitations issued,  —  so  the  rooms  were  not 
at  all  crowded.     At  such  an  entertainment 


78  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

as  this  there  is  one  drawing-room  and  a 
small  dining-room  set  apart  for  the  aristo- 
cracy,—  princes,  princesses,  counts,  count- 
esses, etc.  From  this  retreat  the  nobilitv 
come  out  and  mingle  with  the  crowd  when 
they  like,  hut  the  crowd  is  not  expected  to 
go  in  and  mingle  with  the  nobility  to  any 
great  extent.  I  went  to  the  ball  under  the 
escort  of  some  American  friends,  and  our 
first  duty  was  to  hunt  up  our  host  and 
hostess,  who  had  already  stopped  receiving 
when  we  arrived  at  half  past  nine,  and 
retired  to  the  aristocratic  penetralia  before 
mentioned.  Led  by  my  more  daring  escort, 
I  ventured  in  thither,  and  there  saw  the 
princesses  all  sitting  in  a  row,  looking  very 
uncomfortable  in  their  stiff,  foreign  dresses, 
and  quite  bored  beside.  The  princes  were 
mostly  outside  dancing  with  the  multitude, 
and  when  we  returned  to  the  ball-room 
my  friends  pointed  them  out.  They  did 
not  seem  to  me  very  impressive  in  appear- 
ance, but  have  an  exceedingly  aristocratic 
way  of  holding  up  their  heads  that  makes 
up  somewhat  for  their  small  stature. 

The  thing  that  struck  me  most  on  going 
into  the  dancing-room  wras  the  amazing 
number  of  men  in  gorgeous  uniforms  and 


"  WAITING  FOB  A  PABTNEB."  79 

the  very  small  sprinkling  of  ladies,  mainly 
foreign,  and  all  in  foreign  dress.  There 
was  an  open  space  in  the  centre  of  the 
floor,  in  which  the  dancers  enjoyed  them- 
selves, and  around  the  edges  was  a  solid 
phalanx  of  men,  looking  on  at  the  evolu- 
tions of  their  brethren  who  had  been  for- 
tunate enough  to  secure  partners.  Apropos 
of  the  small  number  of  women,  I  heard 
rather  a  funny  story  from  a  lively  little 
Japanese  lady  to  whom  I  was  introduced. 
She  spoke  English  prettily,  though  with 
a  strong  accent,  and  was  being  instructed 
in  the  latest  style  in  foreign  clothes  by  an 
American  friend  when  I  came  up.  When 
I  remarked  to  her  on  the  small  number  of 
ladies  present,  she  laughed  heartily  as  she 
told  me  of  a  gentleman  who  had  come  to 
her  that  evening  and  asked  her  to  find  him 
a  young  lady  as  a  partner.  She  said  that 
she  did  not  know  any  young  lady  whose 
card  was  not  already  full.  "  Well,  then," 
was  the  reply,  "  find  me  an  old  lady,  for  I 
must  dance."  But  no  old  ladv  could  be 
found,  so  the  would-be  dancer  was  obliged 
to  join  the  ranks  of  the  male  wall-flowers 
who  formed  so  noticeable  a  feature  of  the 
affair. 


80  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

As  I  do  not  dance,  I  should  not  care  to 
go  to  many  balls,  but  once  in  a  while  it  is 
fun  to  stand  by  and  watch  the  world  enjoy 
itself.  We  left  at  about  one,  and  had  a 
beautiful  moonlight  ride  home  through 
the  quiet  streets,  in  an  air  as  warm  and 
soft  as  that  of  a  summer  night  among  the 
New  England  hills. 

I  think  I  must  be  in  high  favor  with  the 
missionaries  of  Tokyo,  for  this  is  the  story 
that  is  afloat  in  missionary  circles  about 
me :  Before  I  came  to  Japan  I  was  engaged 
in  training  theological  students  for  the 
ministry,  and  when  I  received  my  invita- 
tion to  teach  in  the  Peeresses'  School,  I  at 
once  wrote  back  that  I  would  not  come 
unless  I  was  allowed  to  teach  Christianity. 
My  answer  was  laid  before  the  Empress, 
who  deliberated  over  it  awhile,  and  at  last 
said,  "  Let  her  come ; "  so  I  came.  I 
shudder  to  think  how  I  would  fall  in  the 
estimation  of  those  who  believe  this  story, 
if  they  knew  that  the  conditions  I  made 
were  not  in  regard  to  teaching  Christianity, 
but  were  in  regard  to  dogs  and  horses.  I 
do  not  know  whether  the  story  was  im- 
ported from  America,  or  whether  it  is  a 
native  of  Japanese  soil,  but  it  just  shows 


STUDIES  IN  PHYSIOGNOMY.  81 

how  little  any  story  is  to  be  trusted  that  is 
told  in  this  part  of  the  world.  It  is  the 
merest  matter  of  luck  that  the  story  is  not 
to  my  discredit.  If  it  were,  it  would  be 
believed  just  as  readily,  and  with  just  as 
little  pains  taken  to  prove  or  disprove  it. 

Yuki's  little  boy  regards  me  with  great 
favor,  partly  because  I  ride  horseback,  and 
partly  because  I  am  so  different  from  the 
rest  of  his  small  world.  Now,  whenever  I 
go  to  see  his  mother,  he  meets  me  at  the 
door  and  escorts  me  upstairs.  When  I  sit 
down,  he  draws  a  chair  up  close  to  mine, 
sits  down  in  it,  and  takes  my  hand.  This 
he  holds  sentimentally  for  a  while,  sitting 
with  his  eyes  fixed  on  my  face,  scrutinizing 
carefully  the  points  of  difference  between 
me  and  his  other  friends.  Then  he  stands 
up  in  his  chair  and  leans  over  to  me  with 
his  mouth  puckered  up  for  a  kiss.  When 
I  have  kissed  him,  he  grows  bolder,  and 
stretches  out  his  chubby  hand  to  pat  and 
smooth  my  cheeks.  I  think  that  the  color 
of  my  face  was  what  led  him  to  begin  this 
patting,  —  he  wanted  to  see  if  it  rubbed  off; 
but  now,  though  he  has  satisfied  himself  on 
that  point,  he  seems  to  enjoy  feeling  of  me. 
Then  he  passes  his  little  fingers  all  around 


82  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

my  eye-sockets,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
whether  they  really  are  as  deep-set  and 
hollow  as  they  look.  When  his  investiga- 
tions are  ended,  he  cuddles  up  close  to  me, 
and  sits  quite  still  for  a  long  time,  by  way 
of  showing  his  satisfaction  ;  a  great  honor, 
for  he  is  a  very  lively  little  boy,  and  rarely 
sits  still  for  a  minute.  He  calls  me  Bacon 
Chan,  a  kind  of  diminutive  of  Bacon  San, 
or  Miss  Bacon. 

December  2. 

The  weather  is  really  growing  quite 
wintry,  and  to-day  I  noticed  that  the  ba- 
nana-trees in  our  garden,  which  have  kept 
green  and  bright  until  now,  are  withered 
by  the  frost,  and  look  forlorn  enough. 

My  Thanksgiving  dinner  last  week  was 
quite  a  success.  My  cook  was  not  equal 
to  the  real  American  dishes  required  for 
the  occasion,  so  I  had  to  do  a  large  part  of 
the  preparation  myself,  but  was  rewarded 
for  my  labors  over  chicken  pie,  boiled  tur- 
key with  oyster  sauce,  celery  salad,  pump- 
kin pie,  etc.,  by  the  evident  gusto  with 
which  my  Americo- Japanese  friends  par- 
took of  the  feast,  and  by  the  remark  of  one 
of  them  that  it  tasted  like  home,  mean- 
ing the  old   home  in  America  in  which 


THANKSGIVING  DAY.  83 

much  of  her  girlhood  had  been  passed. 
Thanksgiving  Day  was  a  busy  one  for  me. 
School  in  the  morning,  preparation  of  the 
dinner  until  nearly  four,  dinner  at  home 
at  four,  and  a  second  dinner  with  foreign 
friends  at  seven. 

I  had  rather  a  funny  time  about  my 
turkey.  I  told  my  cook  a  week  before- 
hand that  I  must  have  one  for  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day,  but  as  turkeys  are  very  expensive 
out  here,  and  Cook  San  is  an  economical 
soul,  I  think  he  hoped  I  would  forget  my 
contemplated  extravagance.  When  I  came 
home  from  school  on  Wednesday,  I  made 
inquiries  about  my  piece  de  resistance,  and 
found  that  it  had  not  yet  been  procured, 
so  I  sent  Cook  San  out  in  haste  to  secure 
it.  I  was  sitting  in  my  parlor  not  long 
afterward,  writing,  when  I  heard  a  gen- 
tle "quit"  in  the  hall,  and  there  was  my 
cook  with  a  cheerful-looking  turkey  hen 
under  his  arm.  The  bird  was  evidently 
quite  used  to  being  handled,  and  was  look- 
ing about  with  an  air  of  mild  surprise  and 
interest  in  its  new  surroundings  that  was 
really  pathetic.  I  requested  the  cook  to 
have  the  poor  thing  killed  at  once,  but 
shortly  afterward,  as  I  was  at  work  mould- 


84  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

ing  piecrust  in  the  dining-room,  I  spied  my 
turkey  peacefully  grazing  in  the  door-yard. 
I  once  more  sent  for  the  cook,  pointed 
severely  at  the  turkey,  and  requested  him 
to  kill  it.  This  time  he  took  my  advice, 
but  I  think  he  would  have  greatly  preferred 
to  allow  the  bird  to  enjoy  life  until  an  hour 
before  dinner. 

Mine  and  I,  aided  by  the  very  eccentric 
and  tuneless  piano  that  came  with  the 
house,  have  undertaken  to  teach  one  or 
two  Christmas  hymns  in  English  to  some 
of  the  young  people  of  the  church,  and 
hereafter  they  are  to  come  every  Sunday 
afternoon  to  practice.  Neither  Mine  nor 
I  are  very  skillful  musicians,  but  Mine  can 
play  the  tunes  on  the  piano,  and  I  can 
keep  both  time  and  tune  with  my  voice, 
and  both  of  these  are  quite  rare  accom- 
plishments in  this  part  of  the  wTorld. 

I  do  not  think  I  have  written  you  much 
of  anything  about  Fuji-Yama,  but  now  that 
the  clear  winter  weather  has  set  in,  it  has 
become  a  conspicuous  object  in  the  land- 
scape. During  the  summer,  the  mountain 
is  not  often  visible  from  Tokyo,  as  the  air 
is  too  hazy,  but  now,  although  eighty 
miles  away,  it  looms  up   on   the   horizon 


FUJI-YAM  A,  85 

from  every  high  point  in  the  city.  In  the 
morning  one  can  see  even  the  blue  hollows 
in  the  snow  that  covers  its  sides,  and  at 
sunset  it  rises,  a  great  purple  cone,  against 
the  golden  southwestern  sky.  I  do  not 
wonder  that  the  Japanese  love  the  moun- 
tain and  picture  it  so  often,  for  it  is  so 
majestic  in  its  solitary  height,  so  symmet- 
rical in  its  outline,  so  continually  changing 
in  its  aspect,  that  it  becomes  a  part  of 
one's  life  here,  and  after  a  little  one  comes 
to  regard  it  as  a  personal  presence,  and  not 
simply  as  an  object  in  the  landscape.  Yes- 
terday, when  I  went  to  Yokohama,  the 
mountain  was  surrounded  by  clouds  that 
filled  in  the  gap  between  it  and  the  nearer 
and  lower  Hakone  mountains.  From  this 
garment  of  cloud,  the  hoary,  sunlit  head 
towered  far  into  the  blue  sky.  To-night, 
as  I  was  riding  homeward  through  the 
crowded  city  streets,  I  turned  a  corner  and 
there  in  front  of  me  was  the  Hakone  range, 
blue  and  mysterious  in  the  sunset  light, 
and  Fuji's  whole  perfect  outline  overlook- 
ing and  dwarfing  them  all,  and  the  new 
moon  and  the  evening  star  shining  above 
him  in  the  crimson  sky.  Then  in  a  mo- 
ment the  street  crooked  again,  and  he  was 
gone. 


86  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

December  18. 

Last  week  Wednesday  the  school  was  in- 
vited to  visit  the  new  palace,  which  is  now 
finished  and  furnished  and  ready  for  occu- 
pancy,—  only  waiting  until  the  court  can 
persuade  His  Majesty  to  move  in,  a  step 
which,  at  present,  he  utterly  declines  to 
take.  So,  in  the  mean  time,  various  for- 
tunate sorts  and  conditions  of  men  are 
invited  to  come  and  take  a  look  at  the 
grandeur  that  the  Mikado  will  none  of. 
Our  school  was  invited  at  twelve  o'clock, 
so  as  to  see  it  all  and  get  through  before 
the  boys  should  arrive  at  two.  School 
closed  at  half  past  eleven,  but  there  was 
some  difficulty  in  loading  two  hundred  and 
fifty  children  into  two  hundred  and  fifty 
kurumas,  each  in  her  own  private  convey- 
ance, and  all  in  the  order  of  their  rank  in 
the  school,  and  then  in  engineering  this 
line  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  kurumas 
single  file  through  the  crowded  streets  to 
the  palace.  It  was  a  funny  sight  when  at 
last  we  were  off,  and  our  long,  black  line 
squirmed  around  the  curves  of  the  moats, 
looking  like  a  procession  of  ants.  I  was 
near  the  end  of  the  procession,  so  I  could 
see  it  nicely,  and  I  never  before  felt  quite 


TOKYO  MOATS.  87 

as  much  as  if  I  were  part  of  a  circus.  Our 
way  lay  through  Kojimachi,  one  of  the  great 
business  streets,  and  all  the  tradespeople 
turned  out  of  their  shops  and  stood  in  the 
streets  to  see  us  go  by.  We  left  our  kuru- 
mas  outside  of  the  outer  gate  of  the  main 
entrance  to  the  palace  grounds,  crossed 
two  magnificent  bridges  that  span  the  wide 
moat,  and  then  found  ourselves  within  the 
palace  inclosure. 

The  moats  of  Tokyo  are,  to  my  mind, 
the  most  beautiful  things  in  the  city,  with 
their  almost  perpendicular  green  banks 
dropping  down  to  the  fine,  stone-faced 
channels  in  which  the  water  lies.  The 
banks  are  planted  with  magnificent  pines, 
and  at  this  season  the  glassy  water  is 
covered  with  wild  fowl,  swimming  about  as 
securely  in  the  heart  of  this  city  of  a  mil- 
lion inhabitants  as  if  they  were  in  the 
wildest  of  mountain  tarns.  The  moats 
are  particularly  beautiful  where  we  crossed 
them,  and  their  picturesqueness  is  increased 
by  the  high  walls  and  antique  Japanese 
towers  of  the  old  Shogun's  castle,  for  the 
new  palace  is  built  on  the  site  of  the  old 
Tokugawa  castle,  and  the  Tokugawa  forti- 
fications still  surround  it,  though  the  castle 
itself  was  burned  in  1868. 


88  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

We  had  to  walk  quite  a  distance,  and 
over  round  pebbles,  large  enough  to  make 
walking  on  them  most  uncomfortable,  be- 
fore we  reached  the  palace,  and  then  it  took 
some  time  to  get  our  long  line  in,  as  there 
was  a  great  polishing  of  shoes  with  hand- 
kerchiefs, lest  a  particle  of  dust  from 
them  should  soil  the  sacred  precincts.  I 
saw  the  palace  last  summer  very  thor- 
oughly, before  it  was  finished  and  fur- 
nished, and  admired  then  the  exquisite 
carved,  lacquered,  painted,  and  embroi- 
dered work  with  which  it  is  decorated ;  but 
I  doubted  then  whether  the  small,  shabby 
iron  grates  that  have  been  put  into  some 
of  the  finest  rooms,  and  the  gorgeous  for- 
eign upholstery  which  then  stood  unpacked, 
ready  to  be  put  in  place,  would  add  greatly 
to  the  beauty  of  the  Emperor's  new  abode. 
Now  that  everything  is  in  order,  it  looks 
much  better  than  I  had  expected  it  would. 
The  throne  room  is  really  magnificent. 
The  palace  is  built  on  a  purely  Japanese 
plan,  with  long  verandas  or  corridors  open- 
ing upon  gardens  or  court-yards,  although 
glass  doors  stand  in  the  place  of  the  old- 
fashioned  paper  shoji,  and  there  is  the 
modern  improvement  of  a  basement  con- 


THE  NEW  PALACE.  89 

taining  steam-heating  apparatus,  while  the 
dim  illumination  of  the  andon  is  replaced 
by  the  glare  of  multitudinous  electric  lights 
set  in  chandeliers  ablaze  with  crystal  bril- 
liants. 

The  girls  were  much  impressed  aud  in- 
terested, and  we  went  so  slowly  that  we 
saw,  as  we  looked  back  across  gardens 
to  the  corridors  or  verandas  along  which 
we  had  come,  that  the  boys  of  the  Peers' 
School  were  beginning  to  come  in  before 
we  were  half  through.  They  traveled  from 
room  to  room,  and  from  corridor  to  corri- 
dor, in  a  business-like  and  perfunctory  way 
that  brought  them  constantly  nearer  to  us. 
Pretty  soon  a  messenger  brought  us  word 
that  Prince  Haru  was  among  the  boys,  and 
that  if  they  caught  up  with  us  we  must  all 
stop  and  bow  until  he  had  passed  by.  We 
hurried,  after  that,  and  tried  to  finish  and 
get  out  before  the  boys  came  along;  but  as 
girls  take  more  interest  in  upholstery  than 
boys,  the  peers  gained  on  the  peeresses, 
and  we  were  just  outside  of  the  door  and 
preparing  to  march,  when  there  was  a  cry 
of  "  Miya  Sama  !  "  ("  the  Prince  !  ")  and 
down  wre  all  went,  bending  ourselves  dou- 
ble, all  for  the  sake  of  a  very  minute  boy 


90  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

in  a  little  school  uniform,  with  a  little 
school  knapsack  on  his  back,  as  much  like 
the  other  boys  he  was  with  as  if  they  had 
been  manufactured  by  the  dozen.  I  must 
say,  that  rather  went  against  the  grain 
with  me.  I  don't  mind  bowing  to  officials 
and  dignitaries,  but  when  it  comes  to  dou- 
bling myself  up  in  an  abject  manner  before 
a  boy  of  seven,  I  don't  like  it.  However, 
when  one  is  with  peeresses,  one  must  do  as 
the  peeresses  do,  so  I  put  my  pride  in  my 
pocket,  stood  behind  my  pupils,  and  bowed 
with  the  rest. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

December  27  to  January  6. 

Christmas  Preparations.  —  Hanging  Stockings.  —  Eng- 
lish Service.  —  A  Church  Festival.  —  New  Year's  Dec- 
orations. —  New  Year's  Eve  on  Ginza.  —  A  Street 
Fight.  —  New  Year's  Day.  —  Street  Performers.  —  An 
Earthquake.  —  Kurumayas  in  Cold  Weather. 

Tokyo,  December  27,  1888. 

Christmas  is  safely  over,  and  our  vaca- 
tion is  a  pleasant  relief  after  the  steady 
grind  of  school  and  the  wear  and  tear  of 
Christmas  preparation.  It  may  seem  to 
you  as  if  out  here  I  might  get  away  from 
the  annual  madness  of  Christmas  giving, 
and  it  was  quite  a  surprise  to  me  to  see 
what  a  number  of  presents  I  wished  to 
make.  My  own  household  alone  consists 
of  twelve  persons,  for  my  cook  has  three 
children  and  my  groom  five,  and  these  with 
the  four  heads  of  the  two  families  make 
a  round  dozen.  Then  Mine's  household 
adds  five  more  under  the  same  roof  with 
me,  with  whom  I  am  thrown  into  most  in- 
timate relations.     Added  to  these  are  many 


92  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

outside  friends  who  have  shown  me  great 
kindness  since  I  came  here,  so  that  Christ- 
inas seemed  a  good  time  to  evince  my  ap- 
preciation of  their  favors. 

Shopping  is  not  by  any  means  as  easy 
here  as  at  home,  for  I  have  either  to  go 
to  Yokohama  for  things,  or  else  to  get 
them  one  at  a  time  at  the  shops  in  Tokyo, 
which  are  all  very  far  apart,  and  all  a  half 
day's  journey  from  my  house.  I  went  to 
Yokohama  twice,  and  did  the  rest  of  my 
shopping  in  Tokyo,  accomplishing  very  lit- 
tle in  an  afternoon,  both  on  account  of  the 
magnificent  distances  and  the  slowness  of 
Japanese  shopkeepers.  However,  by  dint 
of  great  exertions,  I  did  succeed  in  secur- 
ing a  number  of  pretty  things  by  Christ- 
mas Eve,  and  Mine  and  I  worked  until 
quite  late  at  night,  tying  up  our  presents 
in  proper  shape  with  the  red  and  white 
paper  strings,  and  the  bit  of  dried  fish  done 
up  in  bright  paper  that  must  always  go 
with  a  present  in  Japan. 

Mine  wished  her  household  to  have  the 
pleasure  of  hanging  up  stockings,  so  for 
lack  of  a  chimney  we  hung  them  on  the 
chairs  in  my  parlor,  and  I  contributed 
stockings  for  the  company,  as  the  Japan- 


A  MEBBY  CHBISTMAS.  93 

ese  tabi  is  hardly  roomy  enough  to  contain 
much  in  the  way  of  Christmas  gifts.  We 
hung  seven  stockings  (one  for  Bruce),  and 
labeled  each  in  English  and  Japanese,  so 
that  Santa  Claus  could  make  no  mistake. 
Then  we  went  around  the  room  and  put 
in  our  parcels,  filling  up  the  chinks  with 
oranges,  peanuts,  cakes,  and  candy,  and  pla- 
cing the  overflow  on  the  chairs  on  which 
the  stockings  were  hung.  We  did  not 
finish  our  job  until  pretty  late  in  the  night, 
so  when  I  went  to  bed  at  last,  I  slept 
peacefully  until  my  cook  aroused  me  in  the 
morning,  as  he  came  in  to  make  the  fire, 
with  a  "  Merry  Christmas,"  learned  espe- 
cially for  the  occasion,  for  he  speaks  no 
English  at  all  at  other  seasons  of  the  year. 
Then  I  found  that  all  Mine's  family  were 
up  and  out,  and  having  a  graud  race  around 
the  garden  to  work  off  their  excitement, 
for  we  had  agreed  to  wait  until  all  were 
ready  before  any  of  us  went  into  the  parlor. 
I  dressed  in  a  hurry  when  I  found  that  I 
was  the  last,  but  before  I  was  half  ready 
little  Shige  was  on  the  stairs  shouting 
"  Merry  Christmas,"  and  twice  before  I 
came  down  I  heard  her  call  up  to  me  in 
most  pathetic  tones,   "  Mada   desu   ka?" 


94  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

("  not  yet  ?  ")  When  at  last  I  was  ready, 
we  all  went  into  the  parlor  together  and 
took  down  our  stockings.  My  presents  were 
certainly  most  satisfactory,  and  as  for  Bruce, 
I  am  sure  he  never  had  such  a  Christmas 
in  his  life.  Little  Shige  gave  him  a  big 
stick,  elegantly  attired  in  a  pink  paper 
kimono  with  a  crape^sash.  As  soon  as  it 
appeared  from  the  depths  of  Bruce's  stock- 
ing he  gave  a  yelp  of  delight,  made  a  dive 
at  it,  and  after  a  dance  with  it  around  the 
room,  proceeded  to  undress  it,  to  Shige's 
great  amusement.  Beside  the  stick,  the 
various  members  of  the  family  had  given 
him  a  fine  ball,  a  paper  of  cakes,  some 
candy,  and  a  new  collar,  all  of  wThich  he  ap- 
preciated highly.  My  presents  were  a  heavy 
silk  obi,  the  one  thing  necessary  to  com- 
plete my  Japanese  costume ;  a  furushiki  or 
bundle  handkerchief,  of  bright  colored  crape, 
with  my  name  and  address  on  it  in  Japan- 
ese; a  dwarfed  flowering  plum-tree,  all  in 
bud,  that  will  be  in  bloom  in  a  few  days ; 
and  a  funny  Japanese  thing  that  is  rather 
hard  to  describe,  but  as  it  is  very  charac- 
teristic of  Japan  at  this  season  and  seems 
to  form  a  part  of  the  preparations  for  the 
New  Year,  I  must  try  to  make  you  see  it 


NEW  YEAR'S  DECORATIONS.  95 

with  my  eyes.  It  is  a  pliant,  many-sprayed 
branch  of  a  tree,  and  every  spray  is  covered 
with  round  balls,  pink  and  white  and 
green  and  yellow  and  every  imaginable 
color.  Beside  these  balls,  which  alone 
would  give  it  a  very  gay  appearance,  there 
are  various  objects  hanging  from  the 
branch.  A  great  white  die,  made  of  the 
same  rice  flour  paste  as  the  balls,  swings 
from  a  slender  thread  on  one  spray  ;  a  small, 
fat,  pink  and  white  puppy  of  the  same 
material  dangles  from  another;  a  tin  Fuji- 
Yama  painted  green,  a  tin  coin  painted 
yellow,  intended  to  represent  the  ancient 
gold  coin  of  Japan,  and  numerous  other 
objects,  that  I  can  neither  describe  nor  un- 
derstand, adorn  this  curious  Christmas  tree. 
So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  these 
branches  are  used  simply  for  decoration, 
although  the  adornments  have  each  some 
symbolical  meaning  —  exactly  what,  I  can- 
not find  out. 

When  we  had  finished  examining  and 
exclaiming  over  our  stockings,  I  sent  for 
my  servants,  and  gave  them  their  presents 
in  the  shape  of  cloth  for  dresses  for  each. 
These  were  received  with  many  profound 
bows  and  delighted  smiles  and  a  chatter  of 


96  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

grateful  Japanese,  of  which  I  could  under- 
stand the  drift  if  not  all  the  words.  Then 
we  all  went  off  to  breakfast,  and  after 
breakfast  we  sent  for  the  children  of  the 
cook  and  the  groom.  There  are  eight  of 
them,  and  they  came  and  stood  in  a  rowT  in 
the  sunny  garden,  doubling  themselves  up 
in  the  funniest  little  bows,  and  with  their 
little  black  eyes  shining  and  their  dirty 
round  faces  smiling  in  a  way  that  was  won- 
derfully attractive.  Min£  gave  them  sweets, 
and  I  gave  each  a  toy,  and  they  went  off 
radiant,  their  arms  so  full  that  they  left  a 
trail  of  cakes  and  candies  along  their  line 
of  march,  to  Bruce's  great  delight. 

At  eleven  o'clock  I  went  up  to  the  Eng- 
lish church  at  Shiba,  the  first  time  I  have 
been  to  a  service  in  English  for  a  good 
many  weeks.  The  church  was  prettily  dec- 
orated, and  I  found  the  service  very  pleas- 
ant, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  I  lost  my 
place  in  the  prayer-book,  and  was  compelled 
to  submit  to  the  ignominy  of  having  it 
found  for  me  again  by  an  English  lady, 
who  probably  classified  me  as  a  heathen  or 
a  dissenter,  and  I  hardly  know  which  is 
the  worse  in  English  eyes. 

After  lunch,  our  entire  household  started 


A  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  FESTIVAL.         97 

off  for  the  Christmas  celebration  at  the  na- 
tive Japanese  church  that  we  attend.  We 
found  the  church  quite  full,  though  seats 
had  been  kept  for  us  near  the  front.  The 
decorations  were  pretty,  and  there  were 
three  big*  Christmas  trees  on  the  platform 
where  the  pulpit  usually  stands.  The 
shutters  were  closed  and  the  trees  bril- 
liantly lighted.  The  exercises  consisted  of 
speeches  both  by  the  Sunday-school  chil- 
dren and  by  the  grown  folks ;  songs  and 
recitations  in  Japanese  and  English  ;  a  lit- 
tle dialogue  in  Japanese  between  Santa 
Claus  and  some  of  the  children ;  and  the 
distribution  of  prizes  and  presents.  We 
sang  the  carols  that  we  had  been  prac- 
ticing for  some  weeks,  and  as  our  au- 
dience was  not  critical  they  were  received 
with  enthusiasm.  The  whole  affair  was 
very  pleasant,  not  so  much  for  what  was 
said,  for  of  course  I  could  understand  very 
little  of  that,  but  for  the  friendly,  pleasant, 
childlike  spirit  that  showed  itself  every- 
where. I  do  not  think  I  was  ever  in  a 
church  the  members  of  which  seemed  to 
be  so  active  and  so  entirely  friendly  and 
united,  and  it  is  one  of  the  few  places  in 
this  country  where  I  feel  perfectly  at  home. 


98  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

Everywhere  else  in  Japan  I  feel  that  I  am 
a  foreigner,  for  though  as  a  rule  the  Japan- 
ese are  very  kind  and  polite  to  foreigners, 
they  place  them  in  the  position  of  out- 
siders. But  in  this  church  it  is  entirely 
different;  here,  "we  are  no  more  strangers 
and  foreigners."  The  spirit  of  the  place 
seems  to  be  so  thoroughly  Christian  that  it 
is  of  no  age  nor  race,  but  of  all  ages  and 
for  all  races.  It  speaks  well  for  Japanese 
Christianity  that  this  church  has  grown  up 
and  is  getting  to  be  a  power  in  Tokyo  with 
no  bolstering  or  coddling  by  any  mission- 
ary board.  Its  pastor  receives  a  salary  of 
$40  per  month,  and  the  whole  monthly 
expense  of  the  church  amounts  to  about 
$40  more. 

January  1,  1889. 

To-day  all  Tokyo  is  out  in  gala  costume 
in  honor  of  the  New  Year.  For  several 
weeks  there  has  been  an  air  of  preparation 
about  the  city  :  the  shops  have  been  bright 
with  holiday  goods  and  filled  with  pur- 
chasers, and  for  the  last  few  days  the 
householders  have  been  decorating  their 
house  fronts  with  green,  and  on  almost 
every  street  corner  little  booths  have  been 
put  up,  where  pine-trees,  bamboo-trees,  and 


A  LEARNED   COOK.  99 

rice-straw  decorations  are  sold.  Some  of 
the  arrangements  of  pine  and  bamboo  are 
very  pretty,  and  the  streets  have  a  most 
festive  aspect.  Mine  and  I  decided  to  dec- 
orate our  gate-posts  with  an  arrangement 
of  pine  and  bamboo  that  I  had  noticed  and 
especially  fancied,  so  we  sent  out  my  cook, 
who  is  also  my  steward  and  general  pur- 
chasing agent,  to  make  inquiries  about  the 
price.  He  came  back  with  information 
that  it  would  cost  $2.50  if  we  had  a  gar- 
dener put  it  up,  but  that  he  could  get  the 
materials  and  put  it  up  himself  for  ninety- 
five  cents.  We  told  him  to  go  ahead  and 
do  the  thing  himself,  and  the  result  seems, 
to  my  unsophisticated  eyes,  to  be  all  that 
could  be  desired. 

I  believe  I  have  spoken  of  my  cook 
before.  I  regard  him  as  quite  a  wonderful 
man.  He  is  a  remarkably  handy  person 
about  the  house,  a  fairly  good  cook,  en- 
tirely honest,  and  a  Christian.  He  be- 
longs to  the  samurai  class,  is  well  educated, 
and  reads  Chinese  poetry  for  amusement. 
Imagine  a  cook  in  America  employing  her 
leisure  time  over  Horace  or  Virgil ! 

Last  evening,  I  went  down  to  Ginza,  one 
of  the  principal  business  streets  of  the  city, 


100  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

for  I  had  been  told  that  the  sights  would 
be  well  worth  the  trip.  Two  of  the  young 
girls  in  our  house  went  with  me  as  es- 
cort. They  rode  together  in  a  double  ku- 
ruma,  while  I  followed  them,  drawn  by  my 
pet  strong  man,  a  perfect  Hercules  of  a 
kurumaya,  who  runs  as  fast  as  a  horse,  and 
drags  me  along  as  if  I  were  a  mere  feather. 
Our  way  lay  for  quite  a  distance  through 
very  dark  streets,  lighted  only  by  wander- 
ing kuruma  lanterns,  and  then  suddenly 
we  passed  through  one  of  the  great  gloomy 
gateways  which  shut  off  the  different  di- 
visions of  the  city  from  each  other,  and 
there  was  a  street  all  ablaze  with  lan- 
terns and  torches,  and  alive  with  people  and 
booths.  Flags  were  flying  from  every  pos- 
sible point,  long  fringes  of  rice  straw  were 
streaming  in  the  wind,  and  the  whole  street 
was  aglow  with  light  and  color.  Through 
all  this  brilliancy  we  traveled  for  a  couple 
of  miles,  and  it  was  a  sight  well  worth  our 
long  ride  in  the  dark.  All  through  these 
busy  streets  there  was  so  great  a  crowd  of 
merrymakers  that  the  kurumas  could  hardly 
be  pulled  through  it,  and  we  had  to  go 
very  slowly  and  carefully,  our  men  grunt- 
ing  out   warnings   as   they   pushed   aside 


A  STREET  FIGHT.  101 

the  solid  mass  ahead  of  us.  But  in  spite 
of  all  their  care  and  their  slow  pace, 
the  wheel  of  the  forward  kuruma  became 
locked  with  the  wheel  of  a  little  truck 
dragged  along  carelessly  by  a  little  gaping 
man  in  a  long  blue  gown.  For  a  moment 
it  looked  as  if  there  might  be  an  accident, 
but  the  wheels  were  soon  disentangled  and 
the  double  kuruma  went  on,  and  I  supposed 
that  that  adventure  was  over.  Not  so 
Yasaku,  my  kurumaya.  He  was  resolved 
to  avenge  the  insult  offered  to  our  party 
upon  the  head  of  the  stupid  little  man  with 
the  truck,  for  a  kurumaya  never  forgives  an 
insult  to  his  passenger,  and  Yasaku  is  no- 
thing if  not  brave  and  truculent.  So  still 
holding  the  shafts  with  his  hands,  he  gave 
a  little  jump  like  a  half-broken  colt,  and 
kicked  with  both  legs  at  the  truck  that 
had  dared  to  impede  our  progress.  So  well 
aimed  and  so  forcible  was  the  kick,  that  the 
little  truck  went  flying  sidewise  through 
the  crowd  and  almost  into  a  booth,  and  the 
little  man  must  needs  go  with  it,  nearly 
losing  his  balance  in  his  swift  flight.  But 
even  truckmen  have  feelings,  and  our  lit- 
tle man  could  not  passively  submit  to  be- 
ing kicked  through  the  crowd.     However, 


102  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

as  Yasaku  was  big  and  he  very  small,  as 
Yasaku  was  looking  very  fierce,  white  with 
rage,  and  chattering  like  a  monkey,  while 
the  little  truckman  himself  had  the  heart 
of  a  sick  chicken,  he  followed  the  safest 
line  of  attack,  and  rushed  at  my  kuruma 
from  behind,  giving  it  a  push  that  almost 
threw  Yasaku  down  and  me  out,  picked  up 
his  truck  before  the  astonished  Yasaku 
could  find  out  what  had  happened,  and 
made  the  best  of  his  way  into  the  crowd. 
At  this,  Yasaku  dropped  the  shafts  and 
swooped  down  on  his  small  adversary,  look- 
ing like  a  great  bird,  in  his  wing-sleeved 
blouse  and  his  close-fitting  dark  tights. 
He  seized  the  little  man,  and  slapped  him 
on  the  back  again  and  again  with  the  flat  of 
his  hand,  with  such  force  that  the  sound  was 
as  of  a  drum.  Then  Yasaku  came  back  to 
me,  picked  up  the  shafts,  and  prepared  to 
trot  soberly  along  once  more.  But  the 
little  man  had  not  had  enough,  it  seemed, 
and  came  back  for  more,  attacking  Yasaku 
furiously  as  soon  as  he  saw  him  occupied 
once  more  with  his  kuruma.  But  by  this 
time  the  kurumaya  who  was  drawing  the 
forward  kuruma,  and  who  had  gone  on 
before  the  fight  began,  came  back  to  see 


YASAKU  VICTORIOUS.  103 

what  had  become  of  us,  and  decided  that 
he  would  take  a  hand  in  the  row,  so  he 
dropped  his  kuruma,  Yasaku  once  more 
dropped  his,  and  they  gave  their  small  tor- 
mentor such  a  slapping  that  he  at  last 
allowed  us  to  go  on,  following  us  with  loud 
but  ineffectual  vituperations  as  we  pro- 
ceeded upon  our  victorious  way. 

The  whole  affair  was  so  intensely  funny 
from  beginning  to  end  that  I  could  do 
nothing  but  laugh,  as  I  sat  helpless  in  my 
kuruma,  now  shoved  from  behind,  now 
dropped  down  in  front,  again  left  entirely 
alone  in  the  midst  of  the  strange  crowd, 
while  the  fight  raged  at  a  distance.  Even 
had  I  had  complete  control  of  the  Japan- 
ese language,  I  could  not  have  produced 
any  impression  upon  the  combatants,  for 
they  were  too  much  absorbed  in  what  they 
were  about  to  notice  anything  else.  For- 
tunately for  our  trip  that  evening,  the 
ever-present  police  of  Tokyo  seemed  to  be 
celebrating  the  New  Year  in  some  other  por- 
tion of  the  city,  for  none  of  them  appeared, 
or  our  men  might  have  been  arrested,  leav- 
ing us  to  watch  out  the  old  year  in  Ginza, 
or  else  pull  our  own  jinrikishas  back  with 
us.     I  noticed  that  when  we  were  finally 


104  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

started,  our  men  darted  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible down  the  first  side  street  they  came 
to,  aud  made  their  way  discreetly  through 
the  darkest  streets  homeward. 

As  to-day  is  New  Year's  Day,  every  one 
in  Tokyo  is  out  in  new  clothes.  All  of 
our  family  —  Mine,  her  cousin,  her  girls, 
and  our  men-servants,  our  maid-servants, 
and  our  servants'  children  —  are  arrayed  in 
garments  donned  for  the  first  time  in  honor 
of  the  new  year.  This  morning,  while  I 
was  at  breakfast,  the  cook's  three  little 
ones  stole  on  noiseless  tabi-shod  feet  to  the 
door,  one  at  a  time,  made  their  little  bows, 
and  offered  me  the  New  Year's  greeting. 
Pretty  little  things  they  are,  and  very 
proud  of  their  new  kimonos,  which  they 
wear  with  a  dignity  befitting  their  newness. 
Later  on  my  groom  came,  all  rigged  out  in 
fine  style,  and  prostrated  himself  before 
me,  groveling  with  his  head  on  the  floor 
while  he  made  a  series  of  polite  speeches 
of  congratulation.  I  have  not  yet  become 
used  to  this  kind  of  politeness,  and  I  can- 
not say  that  I  enjoy  it  very  much,  but  it  is 
expected  of  servants  in  this  country,  and 
it  seems  wiser  to  permit  it  than  to  allow 
them  to  treat  me  with  less  outward  respect 


NEW  YEAR'S  DANCERS.  105 

than  they  would  show  to  a  Japanese  em- 
ployer. It  is  a  curious  thing,  though,  that 
in  spite  of  all  this  prostration  and  grovel- 
ing before  their  masters,  servants  here  are 
on  much  more  easy  and  friendly  terms  with 
their  employers  than  they  are  ill  America, 
and  their  position  is  much  more  indepen- 
dent and  responsible.  They  take  out  their 
servility  in  manners,  and  retain  their  real 
independence  in  a  way  that  is  quite  sur- 
prising. So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge, 
personal  and  domestic  service  here  occupy 
a  much  more  desirable  position  among  em- 
ployments than  with  us. 

January  3. 

One  of  the  noticeable  features  of  the 
New  Year's  season  here  is  the  number  of 
street  performers  who  go  from  house  to 
house,  giving  a  show  or  a  song  for  a  few 
cents,  and  reaping  a  pretty  fair  harvest  of 
coppers,  I  should  imagine,  in  a  day's  work. 
Two  such  shows  came  to  us  on  the  after- 
noon of  New  Year's  Day,  and  I  was  glad  to 
have  a  chance  to  see  what  their  perform- 
ance was.  The  first  troupe  consisted  of 
two  jolly-looking  men,  going  about  to  exor- 
cise the  evil  spirits  from  the  houses  of  their 


106  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

patrons.  The  exorcism,  which  is  supposed 
to  remain  effectual  throughout  the  year, 
was  simply  a  queer,  droning*  song,  accom- 
panied by  posturings  and  grimaces,  mostly 
of  a  cheerful  and  mirth-inspiring  character. 
After  they  had  finished  their  performance, 
received  their  small  gratuity,  and  departed, 
leaving  us  good  luck  for  the  coming  year, 
quite  a  large  company  of  street  musicians 
strolled  into  our  yard,  carrying  musical 
instruments  and  masks.  They  gave  an 
entertaining  performance,  posturing  and 
dancing,  changing,  by  means  of  masks  and 
a  few  simple  draperies,  from  demons  to 
women,  from  women  to  fearful,  red-faced, 
goggle-eyed  beasts,  and  dancing  different 
dances  to  suit  the  various  characters  that 
they  assumed.  Poor  Bruce,  with  staring 
eyes  and  bristling  hair,  bore  with  these 
strange  transformations  as  long  as  the  men 
remained  outside  of  the  house,  but  when 
one  performer,  bolder  than  the  rest,  came 
into  the  front  hall  personating  a  much 
conventionalized  lion,  Bruce  flew  at  him, 
growling  fiercely,  so  that  he  was  forced  to 
retreat. 

The  New  Year  began  with  the  sharpest 
earthquake  that   I  have   yet  experienced. 


AN  EABTHQUAKE.  107 

I  was  visiting  a  sick  friend  in  one  of  the 
few   large    foreign  -  built    houses    in    our 
neighborhood.      It   was   terrible   to    hear 
the  earthquake  as  it   traveled   diagonally 
across  the  house  from  corner  to  corner, 
shaking    everything    shakable,    including 
walls  and  floors,  until  it  seemed  as  if  the 
house  must  come   down   about   our   ears. 
We  all  started  for  the   door,  but   by  the 
time  we  reached  it  the  rumbling  and  shak- 
ing stopped.     It  took  my  heart  some  time 
to  recover  its  normal  regularity  after  the 
fright,  for,   somehow,  to  have  the  house 
pitchiug  and  rolling  like  a  ship  in  a  storm 
does    set    one's  heart  bobbing  about  in  a 
most    singular   manner.     My   curiosity  in 
regard  to  earthquakes  is  now  fully  satis- 
fied.    We  have  been  having  them  nearly 
every  day  lately,  but  all  have  been  very 
slight  except  this  one.     I  have  often  been 
awakened  in  the  night  by  a  trembling  of 
the  house  like  the  shaking  of  a  steamship 
from    the   motion   of  its   screw,  but  with 
nothing  frightful  about  it.     Bruce  usually 
gets  up  and  looks  out  of  the  window  when 
this  occurs,  I  think  with  a  view  to  finding 
out   whether   we   are   back   on   shipboard 
again.     But  now  I  know  what  a  good-sized 


108  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

earthquake  feels  like,  and  I  do  not  care  for 
any  more,  large  or  small. 

My  friend's  little  boy,  who  was  asleep  in 
her  room  when  the  earthquake  occurred, 
amused  us  very  much,  when  it  was  over, 
by  demanding'  another  one  immediately. 
When  he  found  that  earthquakes  could 
not  be  made  to  meet  his  order,  he  insisted 
on  making  his  New  Year's  bow  to  me  before 
he  could  be  induced  to  resign  himself  to 
slumber,  so  I  went  over  to  his  bed,  and  the 
polite  little  flannel  bundle  made  me  a  pro- 
found bow,  and  gave  me  his  New  Year's 
greeting.  Then  with  an  easy  conscience 
and  his  social  duties  fully  performed,  he 
lay  down  once  more,  and  was  soon  sound 
asleep. 

January  6. 

We  had  our  first  snow  on  Thursday,  but 
it  disappeared  entirely  before  Friday  night, 
and  now  the  streets  are  quite  dry,  even 
dusty  again.  To-day  is  the  coldest  day 
that  we  have  had,  with  the  ground  frozen 
everywhere  out  of  the  sun.  This  is  the 
beginning  of  the  twenty  days  that  the  Jap- 
anese regard  as  the  coldest  season  of  their 
winter,  and  it  has  been  a  regular  March 
day,  with  a  high  wind  blowing;  very  cold 


KURUMAYAS  IN  WINTER.  109 

in  the  wind,  but  quite  warm  and  comfort- 
able in  sheltered  spots.  On  Friday,  when 
the  snow  lay  upon  the  ground,  I  sent  for  a 
kuruma,  and  the  man  made  his  appearance 
with  feet  bare,  except  for  a  pair  of  straw 
sandals,  and  his  legs  covered  only  by  a  pair 
of  short  blue  cotton  trousers  reaching  half 
way  to  the  knee.  He  was  fairly  blue 
with  the  cold  when  he  started,  but  soon 
warmed  up  with  his  work,  and  seemed 
comfortable  enough.  The  kurumayas  trust 
to  their  exercise  to  keep  them  warm  in 
winter,  and  wear  the  minimum  of  clothing 
for  the  sake  of  convenience  in  running. 
When  they  stop,  they  blanket  themselves 
with  their  lap-robes,  which  are  often  of 
brilliant  red.  A  row  of  kurumayas  wait- 
ing for  fares,  each  with  his  blanket 
wrapped  about  him,  looks  not  unlike  a 
company  of  Indians  fresh  from  the  plains. 
On  cold  nights,  the  kurumaya  sometimes 
secures  artificial  warmth  by  lighting  his 
lantern  and  putting  it  inside  his  blanket. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
January  13  to  30. 

Discharging  a  Groom.  —  The  New  Kurumaya.  —  The 
Emperor's  Moving-Day.  —  A  New  Year's  Lunch. — 
Buying  a  Kuruma.  —  A  New  Horse.  —  The  Japanese 
Language.  —  The  Promulgation  of  the  Constitution.  — 
Tombs  of  the  Loyal  Ronin. 

Tokyo,  January  13,  1889. 

Our  great  excitements  last  week  were 
in  connection  with  the  two  extremes  of 
Japanese  society.  I  discharged  my  groom 
and  succeeded  after  some  difficulty  in  get- 
ting him  off  the  premises,  and  the  Em- 
peror moved  from  the  old  barrack  of  a 
palace  in  which  he  has  been  living  for  the 
last  seventeen  years,  to  the  new  palace 
just  completed,  of  which  I  have  written 
you  once  or  twice  in  these  letters. 

Perhaps  it  may  not  seem  to  you  that 
discharging  one's  groom  is  a  very  interest- 
ing affair,  but  I  can  tell  you  that  in  this 
case  it  became  quite  exciting  before  the 
business  was  finally  ended.     The  bettos,  as 


A  BETTO.  Ill 

they  are  called,  are  regarded  as  a  very  un- 
principled lot  of  men,  the  lowest  and  most 
unreliable  of  all  servants.  This  fellow  that 
I  had  was  sent  to  me  by  one  of  my  Japan- 
ese friends,  who  believed  him  to  be  more 
honest  than  the  average,  and  a  skillful  and 
reliable  groom.  At  first  I  disliked  the 
man,  for  he  seemed  inclined  to  get  me  to 
make  all  sorts  of  unnecessary  purchases  for 
the  stable,  at  higher  prices  than  my  cook 
thought  right,  but  I  hauled  him  up  sharply 
on  that,  and  for  a  while  he  seemed  to  im- 
prove. His  manners  were  always  attrac- 
tive, as  I  think  I  have  written,  and  he  was 
well  built,  wore  his  clothes  jauntily,  and  ran 
gracefully  and  well;  so  though  I  distrusted 
him  a  good  deal,  and  Bruce  disliked  him 
heartily,  I  kept  him  even  after  I  sold  my 
horse,  thinking  that  it  was  better  to  keep 
him  for  the  new  horse,  when  I  should  get 
one,  than  to  run  the  risk  of  finding  a 
worse  successor.  However,  idleness  was 
not  good  for  the  man ;  he  was  off  all  the 
time,  gambling  and  drinking,  and  when  he 
came  back  a  little  excited  with  sake,  he 
would  brag  to  my  cook  of  his  iniquities. 
My  cook  is,  as  I  have  said  before,  a  Chris- 
tian, and  a  most  upright  and  moral  man, 


112  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

and  it  seemed  to  be  my  betto's  delight  to 
scandalize  him  by  stories  of  his  own  sins. 
One  thing  the  betto  bragged  of  was  that  he 
had  three  wives  living  in  different  parts  of 
the  city,  but  I  should  not  have  discharged 
him  for  that,  as  it  is  quite  too  common  a 
failing  in  Japan  to  be  much  of  an  iniquity 
in  a  groom.  What  finally  decided  me  in 
regard  to  the  man  was  that  one  day  he 
confided  to  the  cook  how  he  had  taken  out 
my  horse  and  run  him  in  some  races  that 
were  held  near  here  in  November,  and  had 
won  two  blankets  with  him.  He  had  asked 
me  if  he  might  take  the  horse  to  those 
races,  and  I  had  expressly  forbidden  him, 
and  the  performance  was  not  simply  taking 
undue  liberties  with  my  property,  but  was 
direct  disobedience  as  well.  Those  races 
decided  his  fate,  as  I  concluded  that  I  did 
not  want  to  keep  a  servant  of  that  char- 
acter, and  on  Christmas  Day  I  told  him 
that,  as  I  had  sold  my  horse,  I  did  not  need 
him  any  longer,  and  he  could  go  the  first 
of  the  year.  He  took  his  warning  very 
sweetly,  smiled  affably,  bumped  his  fore- 
head against  the  floor  a  great  many  times 
as  it  was  delivered  to  him,  and  expressed 
his   respect   and   regard  for  me  in  many 


THE  GROOMS  DEPARTURE.         113 

words  before  he  backed  out  of  my  presence ; 
but  he  made  up  for  his  politeness  to  me 
by  flying  out  at  my  unfortunate  cook,  whom 
he  scared  nearly  out  of  his  wits  by  dire 
and  mysterious  threats  of  vengeance.  Cook 
San  seized  the  earliest  opportunity  to  bring 
into  the  house  all  of  my  stable  property 
that  he  could  lay  his  hands  on,  but  when 
that  graceless  groom  finally  moved  out  on 
the  10th,  he  carried  with  him  blankets, 
curry-combs,  brushes,  pails,  and  a  variety 
of  small  odds  and  ends,  not  to  speak  of  the 
new  suit  of  clothes  that  I  had  had  made 
for  him,  with  my  monogram  embroidered 
in  the  middle  of  the  back.  He  took  the 
opportunity  when  Mine  and  the  cook  were 
out  of  the  house  to  come  in  and  bid  me 
an  affecting  farewell  and  then  decamp, 
explaining  to  the  cook's  wife,  when  she 
inquired  about  the  blankets  and  other 
things,  that  if  I  asked  about  them  he  would 
come  and  explain  why  he  had  taken  them. 
With  this  mysterious  message  he  departed. 
When  the  situation  was  explained  to  me, 
as  it  was  at  some  length  when  Mine  came 
back,  it  struck  me  as  absurd  that  I  should 
be  made  such  a  fool  of  by  a  rascally  groom. 
Mine  and  I  pondered  the  matter  until  at 


114  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

last,  after  various  conferences  with  the 
cook  and  my  new  kurumaya,  we  decided  to 
send  a  messenger  to  the  address  that  the 
groom  had  left  us,  with  a  note  politely  in- 
forming him  that  he  had  made  a  mistake 
and  carried  off  some  of  my  things.  If  he 
did  not  give  them  up  for  the  asking,  we 
would  then  send  the  police  after  him. 
After  both  Cook  San  and  Yasaku  had  given 
excellent  reasons  why  it  would  not  be  wise 
or  politic  for  either  of  them  to  go,  we  se- 
cured as  messenger  a  man  from  a  neigh- 
boring jinrikisha  stand.  He  departed  at 
about  eleven  in  the  morning  and  returned 
at  four  in  the  afternoon,  bringing  word  that 
he  had  scoured  the  entire  district  men- 
tioned in  the  address,  but  no  person  of 
that  name  was  known  in  the  neighborhood. 
So  you  see  that  I  wras  completely  fooled 
by  the  man,  and  though  the  value  of  the 
things  that  he  stole  from  me  was  not  great, 
I  did  not  enjoy  the  experience.  However, 
I  decided  to  do  nothing  more  about  the 
matter,  as,  if  I  put  it  into  the  hands  of  the 
police  and  they  did  not  succeed  in  catch- 
ing the  thief,  he  might  take  his  revenge  on 
me  by  stealing  or  poisoning  my  dog.  One 
of  the  iniquities  that  the  scamp  had  bragged 


A   USEFUL  SERVANT.  115 

of  to  Cook  San  was  that  he  had  killed  one 
of  the  horses  at  a  stable  from  which  he 
had  been  dismissed,  and  he  had  expressed 
a  wish  to  be  informed  if  I  should  ever  get 
another  horse  and  another  groom.  I  am 
not  at  all  afraid  for  my  horse,  for  my  big 
kurumaya  whom  I  have  just  engaged,  and 
who  will  sleep  in  the  stable,  is  both  hon- 
est and  valiant,  and  would,  I  am  sure,  be 
more  than  a  match  for  the  betto,  should 
he  ever  visit  my  stable  with  evil  intent. 
My  new  man  is  the  same  Yasaku  of  whom 
I  have  spoken  in  a  previous  letter  as  so 
very  strong  and  fast.  I  have  been  hiring 
him,  when  I  could  get  him,  from  a  neigh- 
boring jinrikisha  stand,  but  have  now 
taken  him  altogether  into  my  service,  to 
do  double  duty  as  groom  and  kurumaya. 
I  am  delighted  to  secure  so  good  a  servant, 
for  he  does  three  times  as  much  work  about 
the  place  as  the  groom  ever  did,  and  is 
always  on  hand  to  run  errands,  carry  my 
books  when  I  go  to  school,  help  my  vis- 
itors' kurumayas  up  the  steep  hill  that 
leads  to  my  house,  and  make  himself  use- 
ful in  thousands  of  ways  that  the  betto 
never  dreamed  of. 

Now,    having   written  at   some   length 


116  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

about  the  betto  and  his  successor,  I  must 
tell  you  about  the  Mikado's  moving-day. 
Our  school  was  to  have  begun  on  Friday, 
the  11th,  but  as  that  was  the  day  fixed  upon 
for  the  Emperor's  removal,  the  schools 
were  given  a  holiday  in  honor  of  the  event. 
For  weeks  past,  the  streets  between  the 
old  palace  and  the  new  have  been  filled  with 
jovial  companies  of  coolies,  carrying  on 
their  shoulders  in  great  litters  the  various 
imperial  household  goods.  There  seems 
to  have  been  a  great  deal  of  rubbish  trans- 
ported in  this  way,  for  I  have  caught 
glimpses  of  old  furniture,  etc.,  that  would 
hardly  strike  us  as  worth  the  trouble  of 
transporting;  but  apparently  everything 
that  the  Emperor  has  ever  used  must 
be  moved,  even  if  it  be  nothing  but  an 
empty  astral  oil-can.  Of  course,  many  val- 
uable things  have  been  moved  too,  but  the 
curious  crowd  has  seen  only  the  rubbish, 
for  the  valuables  were  all  carefully  boxed, 
and  the  boxes  covered  with  great  blue  or 
purple  cloths,  stamped  with  the  white  im- 
perial chrysanthemum. 

On  the  night  of  the  10th,  the  moving 
was  ended  by  the  removal  of  the  impe- 
rial  insignia  from  the  old    palace  to  the 


THE  IMPERIAL  INSIGNIA.  117 

new,  and  from  that  event  the  Emperor's 
occupation  of  his  new  home  will  probably  be 
dated.  These  imperial  insignia  are  to  the 
Emperors  of  Japan  what  the  crown  jewels 
are  to  European  monarchs ;  but  besides, 
there  is  attached  to  them  the  religious 
significance  that  belongs  to  the  relics  of 
a  patron  saint.  They  are  the  sword,  the 
mirror,  and  the  jewel  handed  down  by 
Jimmu  Tenno,  the  first  Emperor  of  Japan, 
to  his  descendants,  and  which  have  passed 
in  turn  to  each  emperor  who  has  reigned 
in  the  twenty-five  hundred  years  or  more 
since  the  great  ancestor  of  the  imperial 
house  was  called  away  from  the  earth.  The 
tradition  is  that  Jimmu  Tenno  was  a  son  of 
the  gods,  and  that  these  sacred  objects  were 
given  him  by  the  gods  themselves,  with 
the  prophecy  that  so  long  as  they  should 
remain  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants 
the  Empire  of  Japan  should  endure.  Hence 
the  veneration  with  which  they  have  always 
been  regarded,  and  the  sacredness  that 
attaches  to  the  Emperor  and  his  court  as 
the  guardians  of  these  relics.  During  the 
Middle  Ages,  when  Japan  was  almost  torn 
asunder  by  the  wars  and  rivalries  of  the 
great  families  who  aspired  to  the  position 


118  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

of  chief  adviser  to  the  Emperor,  going* 
often  so  far  as  to  support  different  scions  of 
the  imperial  house  as  rightful  heirs  to  the 
throne,  whichever  of  the  contestants  could 
show  that  their  Mikado  was  in  possession 
of  these  treasures  established  at  once,  on 
that  ground  alone,  his  right  to  the  titles 
and  the  throne.  In  Japan,  so  far,  it  has 
never  occurred  to  even  the  most  ambitious 
mind  that  any  one  could  be  received  as 
emperor  who  was  not  a  lineal  descendant 
of  Jimmu  Tenno,  and  who  did  not  have  in 
his  possession  the  imperial  insignia;  and 
hence,  in  the  history  of  Japan,  while  we 
find  the  names  of  many  who  have  virtually 
usurped  the  imperial  power,  no  one  has 
ever  made  an  attempt  to  usurp  the  imperial 
throne ;  and  so,  when  the  insignia  were 
removed  on  the  10th  and  placed  in  their 
shrine  in  the  penetralia  of  the  new  palace, 
needs  must  that  the  Emperor  should  leave 
his  old  abode  and  follow  the  sacred  symbols 
of  his  power  to  their  new  resting-place. 

As  I  said,  the  school  was  given  a  holi- 
day on  that  eventful  Friday,  but  teachers 
and  pupils  were  told  to  be  on  hand  at  nine 
o'clock,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  stand  in  line 
and  bow  when  the  Emperor  should  go  by. 


SCHOOL  CHILDREN  IN  LINE.  119 

Even  before  nine  o'clock,  when  we  went 
up  to  school,  the  street,  on  both  sides,  from 
the  Emperor's  gate  on,  was  lined  with  the 
district  school  children,  each  school  under 
command  of  its  teachers,  and  each  carrying 
white  banners.  The  children  looked  very 
pretty,  the  boys  in  their  Europeanized 
uniform  caps,  the  girls,  almost  without 
exception,  in  the  Japanese  costume  of 
purple  hakama,  or  kilt  -  plaited  divided 
skirt,  which  forms  the  uniform  of  the  little 
school-girls.  It  was  a  brisk,  cool  morning, 
and,  as  we  came  by,  one  teacher  was  warm- 
ing up  his  class  of  little  ones  by  some  calis- 
thenic  exercises,  into  which  they  entered 
with  a  will. 

At  about  half  past  nine  the  bell  rang, 
and  our  school  went  out,  and  drew  up  in 
line  directly  in  front  of  our  building.  Our 
children,  in  their  dowdy  foreign  dresses, 
were  not  as  pretty  in  detail  as  the  district 
school  children,  but  as  they  are  very  fond 
of  using  a  great  many  bright  colors,  out- 
line was  the  gayest  of  all.  The  school 
children  stretched  in  two  continuous  lines 
for  the  mile  and  a  half  that  lies  between 
the  two  palaces,  making  a  bright  little 
fence  along  the  road  for  the  whole  dis- 


120  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

tance,  and  they  alone  were  allowed  an 
uninterrupted  view  of  the  imperial  prog- 
ress, for  all  intruders  were  carefully  kept 
away  by  the  police. 

At  last,  as  we  stood  there  stamping  our 
feet  to  keep  them  warm,  —  for  the  ground 
was  cold  and  damp,  though  the  sunshine 
was  bright  and  warm,  —  a  mounted  officer 
came  galloping  along  to  make  sure  that 
the  way  was  clear.  On  his  heels  came  the 
imperial  guard,  their  red  and  white  pen- 
nants fluttering  gayly  and  their  horses 
dancing  friskily.  Then  followed  the  Em- 
peror's carriage,  with  its  red  hangings  and 
black,  white,  and  gold  liveried  lackeys. 
As  the  carriage  came  out  of  the  court 
gate,  the  children  at  the  end  of  the  line 
began  the  Japanese  national  air,  and  the 
wild,  martial,  and  inspiring  music  was 
carried  along  the  line  as  fast  as  the  coach 
moved,  so  that  all  the  way  to  the  palace 
the  Emperor  was  accompanied  by  the  chil- 
dren's voices.  It  was  a  pretty  idea,  I 
thought,  and  the  voices  sounded  sweetly  in 
the  open  air,  their  queer  metallic  tone  suit- 
ing the  Japanese  music  much  better  than 
it  does  the  foreign.  After  the  Emperor's 
coach  came  another  mounted  body-guard, 


A  NEW  YEAR'S  LUNCH.  121 

and  then  the  Empress  and  her  ladies,  in 
a  coach  exactly  like  the  Emperor's.  Of 
course  we  had  to  bow  as  the  coaches  went 
by,  and  we  did  not  see  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  at  all,  but  I  did  not  care  very 
much,  as  I  had  seen  the  Emperor  and  ex- 
amined him  carefully,  and  I  am  likely  to 
have  a  good  many  opportunities  to  see  the 
Empress  before  the  year  is  ended.  A  long 
line  of  carriages,  containing  the  rest  of 
the  imperial  household,  followed,  and  then 
the  show  was  over,  and  we  were  allowed  to 
go  home.  I  am  sure  the  children  must 
have  been  glad  to  be  marched  off  singing, 
under  their  teachers'  lead,  for  many  of 
them  had  been  standing  in  line  for  an  hour 
and  a  half. 

Yesterday,  school  assembled,  but  there 
were  no  lessons.  We  met  in  the  gymna- 
sium to  hear  speeches  from  the  president, 
the  lady  principal,  and  some  of  the  direc- 
tors of  the  school.  After  they  were  over, 
the  girls  were  dismissed,  but  the  teachers 
remained  to  a  lunch,  where  the  ceremonial 
New  Year's  dishes  were  served.  It  was 
rather  the  least  attractive  lunch  that  I 
have  ever  been  called  upon  to  eat,  for  the 
dishes  are  historic,  and  belong  to  a  former 


122  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

period,  and  are  not  much  relished  even  by 
the  Japanese  of  the  present  day.  There 
was  sak£,  which  I  do  not  like  any  better 
than  any  other  kind  of  wine,  and  there- 
fore do  not  drink ;  and  soup,  containing1 
large,  rank-flavored  mushrooms  and  greens 
of  some  kind;  and  cuttlefish,  both  dried 
and  stewed.  I  tried  some  of  the  dried 
cuttlefish,  and  found  that  in  the  mouth  it  is 
difficult  to  distinguish  from  a  leather  shoe- 
string, but  I  did  not  attempt  the  stewed 
variety,  as  Mine  assured  me  that  she  did  not 
like  it.  Beside  these  things,  there  were 
various  kinds  of  raw  fish,  cut  into  thin  slices 
and  served  with  pickled  chrysanthemums, 
horse-radish,  sea-weed,  and  shoyu.  I  man- 
aged to  eat  quite  a  good  deal  of  the  raw 
fish,  which  is  really  not  bad  after  you  have 
pocketed  your  prejudices,  and  if  you  flavor 
it  up  well  with  the  condiments.  I  was 
pleased  to  see  that,  though  there  were 
three  foreigners  at  the  table  beside  myself, 
and  all  have  been  in  Japan  much  longer 
than  I  have,  I  could  eat  the  Japanese  food 
more  easily,  and  manage  the  chopsticks 
better,  than  any  of  them,  thanks  to  the 
cosy  Japanese  lunches  that  I  have  taken 
with   my  friends  in  their  own   homes.     I 


A  NEW  KUBUMA.  123 

have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are 
very  few  foreigners  in  Japan  who  have  my 
opportunities,  and  I  trust  I  am  duly  thank- 
ful, and  shall  make  good  use  of  them.  For- 
eigners may  live  in  Japan  for  years  and 
not  see  so  much  of  real  Japanese  life  as  I 
have  been  able  to  see  in  the  few  months 
since  I  began  housekeeping  in  Tokyo. 

January  25. 

I  have  just  bought  a  kuruma,  or,  rather, 
had  one  built,  for  the  regular  Japanese 
size  is  a  pretty  tight  fit  for  me.  The  whole 
cost  of  it,  finished,  and  with  my  monogram 
painted  on  the  lacquered  panel  at  the  back, 
was  nineteen  yen.  My  kurumaya  wears 
the  same  monogram  embroidered  on  his 
coat,  right  between  the  shoulders,  and  the 
paper  lantern  that  he  carries  at  night  is 
decorated  in  the  same  way,  so  that  even 
after  dark  the  outfit  can  be  picked  out  of  a 
crowd  of  others  as  belonging  to  me.  I  feel 
very  fine  as  I  ride  about  the  city  in  my  new 
equipage,  and  it  is  a  great  comfort  to  have 
a  pleasant,  strong  man  always  at  hand  to 
take  me  anywhere  at  a  moment's  notice. 

I  am  at  present  trying  horses  again.  I 
have  found  two  that  I  like,  and  am  divided 


124  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

in  my  mind  between  them.  I  have  a 
strong1  leaning-  toward  a  pretty  and  intelli- 
gent little  black  beast,  with  a  good  deal  of 
spirit  and  delightfully  easy  gaits,  but  I  am 
afraid  that  he  is  too  small  and  too  young 
for  me.  The  one  that  I  think  I  ought  to 
buy  is  a  heavier  and  stronger  gray,  with 
an  obstinate  carriage  of  the  head,  and  a 
dangerous  pair  of  heels.  Japanese  ponies 
are  >arely  good-natured,  and  are  always 
looking  for  a  chance  to  kick,  bite,  or  strike 
out  with  their  forefeet,  and  as  the  little 
black  seems  to  have  a  good  temper,  and 
the  gray  is  one  of  the  kind  that  cannot  be 
trusted,  I  am  tempted  to  buy  the  black  for 
his  moral  qualities. 

January  30. 

I  bought  a  horse  yesterday,  and  am 
much  pleased  with  my  purchase.  I  finally 
yielded  to  the  charms  of  the  little  black. 
My  cook  and  kurumaya,  who  are  to  divide 
the  care  of  him,  are  also  pleased  with  the 
addition  to  the  family.  He  certainly  seems 
more  of  a  horse  and  less  of  a  machine  than 
Dawn,  in  whom  I  could  never  get  up  the 
slightest  interest. 

I  really  feel  that  I  am  getting  to  know 
something    about    the    language,    under 


THE  JAPANESE  LANGUAGE.        125 

Mine's  efficient  instruction.  I  find  that 
after  every  lesson  the  next  one  is  learned 
more  easily,  and,  although  I  know  very 
little  yet,  I  feel  considerably  encouraged.  I 
think  it  is  broadening"  to  the  mind  to  study 
a  language  that  is  so  altogether  different 
from  all  past  experiences  in  that  line. 
Imagine  a  language  that  contains  only 
three  parts  of  speech,  the  noun,  the  verb, 
and  the  adjective,  and  in  which  any  one 
word  may  be  all  three,  so  that  if  you  hear 
a  word  that  you  may  happen  to  be  familiar 
with  as  a  noun,  you  cannot  tell  whether  it 
is  behaving  like  a  noun  on  this  particu- 
lar occasion,  or  whether  it  is  not  doing 
the  work  of  a  verb  or  an  adjective.  I  am 
beginning  to  understand  a  great  many  of 
the  apparently  stupid  mistakes  that  my 
pupils  make  in  English,  as  I  see  what  an 
absolutely  fluid  thing  their  native  tongue  is. 
As  for  grammar,  there  is  none  to  speak 
of,  since  there  is  really  almost  nothing  to 
classify,  words  slide  around  in  such  a  way 
from  one  kind  of  work  to  another.  In  the 
written  language  I  am  not  making  much 
progress.  I  am  still  laboring  with  the 
kata  kana,  but  I  know  that  pretty  well  now, 
and  mean  to  take  up  the  hira  kana  next 


126  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

week.  The  letters  are  terribly  slippery, 
and  one  of  the  great  difficulties  in  retain- 
ing them  in  the  mind  lies  in  the  fact  that, 
after  they  are  pretty  well  learned,  there 
is  almost  no  opportunity  to  practice  read- 
ing with  them,  for  of  course,  with  so  many 
letters  and  characters  as  are  used  here,  you 
may  go  for  days  without  seeing  anything 
in  which  the  particular  ones  that  you  have 
just  learned  occur.  Fortunately,  I  was 
given  a  little  magazine  the  other  day,  in 
which  there  is  a  long  article  written  en- 
tirely in  kata  kana,  and  now  I  practice 
reading  aloud  from  it,  a  task  that  is  much 
more  encouraging  than  hunting  out  what 
I  do  know  from  a  wilderness  of  hieroglyph- 
ics that  I  do  not  know  at  all.  Without 
that  little  magazine,  I  am  sure  I  should 
have  given  up  the  letters  in  despair. 

Japan  is  in  quite  a  state  of  expectation 
over  the  near  approach  of  the  day  set  for 
the  promulgation  of  the  Constitution.  The 
day  fixed  for  the  ceremony  is  February  11, 
the  anniversary  of  the  accession  of  Jimmu 
Tenno  to  the  throne,  660  b.  c.  All  the 
most  learned  men  of  Japan,  together  with 
various  foreign  lawyers,  imported  by  the 
government   at  great   expense,  have  been 


TOMBS  OF  THE  BON  INS.  127 

at  work  on  the  Constitution  for  years,  and 
now  it  is  to  be  promulgated,  so  that  the 
people  will  have  a  year  to  study  it  before  it 
goes  into  force.  There  is  to  be  some  kind 
of  a  grand  ceremonial  connected  with  the 
event,  but  I  shall  not  be  able  to  see  it,  as 
it  is  only  for  the  high  officials,  who  will  be 
gathered  together  in  the  palace  on  that 
day  from  the  whole  empire. 

I  had  a  delightful  ride  the  other  day 
with  a  Japanese  friend.  We  went  out  to 
the  tombs  of  the  forty-seven  ronins,  and  I 
found  the  place  very  impressive.  In  the 
temple  near  which  they  are  buried  are 
kept  the  relics  of  the  faithful  servants,  — 
swords,  armor,  etc. ;  but  those  are  only 
shown  on  certain  days,  and  we  were  there 
on  the  wrong  day.  The  gravestones  form 
a  hollow  square,  and  are  shut  off  from  the 
other  graves  in  the  cemetery  by  a  feuce. 
The  inclosure  is  hard  by  the  great  stone 
block  that  marks  the  resting-place  of  the 
lord,  to  avenge  whose  death  the  faithful 
servants  died.  Before  each  gravestone  in- 
cense is  always  burning,  and  has  been  for 
the  two  hundred  years  since  the  graves 
were  made,  —  supplied  during  all  this  time 
by  the  offerings  of  visitors  to  the  tomb,  so 


128  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

sacred  is  loyalty  in  the  minds  of  the  Jap- 
anese !  The  place  is  densely  shaded,  and 
the  fragrant  smoke  hangs  low  under  the 
trees,  making  the  air  thick  and  heavy 
throughout  the  inclosure.  Forty-eight 
men  are  buried  there,  and  the  story  of 
the  forty-eighth  is  this  :  A  Satsuma  man 
insulted  the  leader  of  the  ronins  for  not 
avenging  the  death  of  his  lord,  at  a  time 
when,  for  the  sake  of  disarming  suspicion, 
the  whole  band  had  scattered,  and  the 
leader  was  living  a  most  dissolute  and 
apparently  purposeless  life.  This  Satsuma 
man,  when  he  heard  of  the  long  waiting 
and  the  bold  stroke  by  which  the  death 
was  at  last  avenged,  was  overcome  with 
remorse  as  he  thought  of  the  undeserved 
insult  that  he  had  inflicted,  and  to  prove 
the  sincerity  of  his  repentance,  he  com- 
mitted hara-kiri  upon  the  tomb  of  the 
leader,  and  was  buried  with  the  faithful 
forty-seven. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
February  12  to  20. 

The  Promulgation  Festival.  —  Morning'  Scenes  on  Koji- 
machi.  —  Exercises  at  the  School.  —  Imperial  Progress 
through  Tokyo  Streets.  —  Evening  Bides  and  Street 
Sights.  —  Rice  and  Eels.  —  Mingling  with  the  Holi- 
day Crowd.  —  Murder  of  Viscount  Mori.  —  Viscount 
Mori's  Funeral.  —  Religious  Liberty  under  the  Con- 
stitution. —  Another  Earthquake. 

Tokyo,  February  12,  1889. 

Yesterday  morning,  when  I  awoke,  the 
snow  lay  thickly  over  everything,  and  was 
still  falling,  so  that  there  seemed  no  pos- 
sibility of  the  great  public  rejoicings  that 
had  been  planned  to  celebrate  the  promul- 
gation of  the  Constitution.  However,  in 
spite  of  the  snow,  we  heard  a  tum-tum- 
ming  on  the  business  street  above  us  that 
led  us  to  believe  that  some  one  was  doing 
something  in  honor  of  the  day,  and  after 
much  persuasion  I  succeeded  in  inducing 
Mine  to  put  on  her  worst  clothes  and  arc- 
tics, and  we  sallied  out  in  the  snow  and 
slush   to   see   what   might   be   going   on. 


130  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

When  we  reached  Kojimachi,  the  business 
street  before  referred  to,  the  sight  was 
most  melancholy.  The  night  before,  as 
Yasaku  brought  me  home  through  it,  it 
had  been  gay  with  flags  and  lanterns,  but 
now,  all  the  decorations  that  could  be  taken 
down  had  disappeared,  and  nothing  re- 
mained to  do  honor  to  the  day  except  a 
few  moist,  depressed,  and  wretched-looking 
flags.  Here  and  there  people  were  wan- 
dering disconsolately  about,  muddy  nearly 
up  to  their  waists,  and  the  scene  was  any- 
thing but  festive;  still,  in  the  distance  we 
heard  the  beating  of  drums,  so  we  splashed 
along  the  street  to  find  out,  if  we  could, 
who  it  was  that  was  cheerful  under  such 
depressing  circumstances.  On  our  way 
we  passed  a  mournful  spectacle.  Some  en- 
terprising householders  had  put  all  their 
small  savings  together,  and  had  erected 
two  enormous  flags  on  bamboo  poles,  the 
poles  crossing  over  the  street  and  tied  to- 
gether with  a  huge  bow-knot  of  purple 
silk  cord  with  tassels  hanging  from  it. 
The  night  before,  the  flags  had  formed 
one  of  the  most  imposing  decorations  on 
all  the  long,  bright  street.  But  unfortu- 
nately they  were  not   dyed  to  meet  such 


INEFFECTUAL  HOLIDAY.  131 

weather,  and  the  red  from  the  sun  in  the 
centre  of  each  flag  had  spread  itself  out 
over  the  white  ground,  changing  it  to 
a  dirty  pink,  while  the  snow  beneath  was 
grewsome  with  the  gory  rain  that  had 
dripped  from  the  demoralized  banners. 
Every  one  who  came  by  stopped  to  utter 
some  exclamation  of  pity  for  the  poor  peo- 
ple whose  efforts  to  decorate  were  thus 
ruined.  A  little  way  beyond  this  wreck  we 
found  the  place  from  which  the  alluring 
sounds  proceeded.  We  stopped  in  front 
of  a  small  house,  which  would  have  been 
a  shop  on  any  other  day,  and  there  was 
a  big  two-story  cake  set  in  a  sort  of  shrine, 
with  candles  in  front  of  it,  and  a  number 
of  men  seated  on  the  floor  beside  it  beating 
drums  and  blowing  on  flutes,  while  a  little 
crowd  was  standing  in  the  slushy  street 
listening  to  the  somewhat  inharmonious 
din.  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  discover 
what  it  was  all  about,  but  it  cheered  us 
somewhat  to  feel  that  some  one  was  cele- 
brating even  in  this  incomprehensible  way. 
After  we  had  seen  that,  we  thought  we 
were  cold  and  wet  and  muddy  enough  to 
go  home,  which  we  accordingly  did,  sure 
that  there  would  be  nothing  more  to  see 
on  that  day. 


132  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

As  we  were  sitting  in  my  parlor  after 
our  return,  we  heard  the  salute  which  an- 
nounced that  the  ceremony  in  the  palace 
was  over,  and  that  the  Constitution  had 
been  given  by  the  Emperor  to  his  minis- 
ters. At  that  very  moment  the  clouds 
began  to  break,  and  soon  the  sun  was  shin- 
ing, but  still,  when  I  started  for  school  at 
a  little  before  twelve,  I  had  no  idea  that 
there  would  be  any  review,  for  the  roads 
were  in  a  terrible  condition  with  slush  and 
mud.  But  when  I  reached  the  top  of  the 
hill  I  saw  squads  of  soldiers  inarching  out 
to  the  parade  ground,  officers  riding  back 
and  forth,  flags  flying,  lanterns  being  hung 
up  as  fast  as  possible,  and  all  the  signs  of 
preparation  for  the  great  event.  Min6  had 
gone  to  school  a  little  before  me,  and  when 
I  reached  there  I  found  that  the  teachers 
were  engaged  in  bowing  to  the  Emperor's 
picture,  a  ceremony  which  is  fortunately 
not  required  of  foreigners.  I  am  afraid 
that  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  do  it, 
for  I  think  it  is  of  the  nature  of  an  act  of 
worship ;  at  any  rate,  it  is  too  much  like 
that  for  me  to  want  to  perform  it.  The 
Emperor's  picture  is  kept  in  a  room  that 
is  only  opened  for  this  ceremony,  or  for  the 


A  NEW  DEPARTURE.  133 

Empress  when  she  visits  the  school.  The 
teachers  high  enough  in  rank  to  be  re- 
ceived at  court  are  not  expected  to  bow 
before  the  picture,  but  all  of  the  others 
must  do  so  on  special  occasions,  such  as  the 
Emperor's  birthday,  New  Year's  Day,  etc. 
When  the  teachers  had  finished,  the  pupils 
were  brought  up  in  classes  and  put  through, 
and  then  we  went  to  our  chilly  assembly 
room,  and  there  was  some  koto  and  piano 
music,  and  some  fuzzy  singing  by  the  girls. 
After  these  exercises  were  over,  we  put  on 
our  wraps,  and  went  out  and  stood  in  line 
for  an  hour  in  front  of  the  building,  and 
watched  the  funny  Japanese  crowd  until 
the  procession  came  by.  Upon  this  occa- 
sion, for  the  first  time,  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  rode  in  the  same  coach,  and  it  is 
really  a  great  step  up,  so  far  as  the  women 
of  the  country  are  concerned.  The  theory 
hitherto  has  been  that  the  Emperor  is  too 
far  above  his  wife  in  dignity  to  appear  in 
public  with  her  in  the  same  carriage,  but 
yesterday,  by  riding  with  her,  he  recognized 
the  fact  that  his  wife  is  raised  by  her 
marriage  to  his  own  social  level.  It  is  a 
formal  adoption  of  the  Western  idea  in 
regard  to  the  position  of  the  wife. 


134  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

The  procession  was  the  finest  that  I  have 
seen  yet.  First  there  were  the  mounted, 
gold-laced  soldiers,  carrying  red  and  white 
pennons,  who  always  march  in  front  of  the 
Emperor's  carriage.  These  were  followed 
by  four  or  five  state  coaches,  containing 
the  princes  and  cabinet  ministers.  Then 
came  another  squad  of  horsemen,  and 
then  the  most  gorgeous  coach  that  I  have 
ever  seen,  drawn  by  six  black  horses,  each 
led  by  a  magnificent  black,  white,  and 
gold  liveried  groom,  while  the  coachman 
on  the  box  was  so  bedizened  with  gold  that 
he  looked  like  a  lay  figure  rather  than 
a  real  man.  Just  at  this  point  we  all 
bowed,  so  that  I  saw  nothing  more  but  the 
top  of  the  Empress'  bonnet  as  she  turned 
to  look  at  her  little  peeresses,  who  seem  to 
have  a  warm  place  in  her  heart.  When 
we  lifted  our  heads,  the  splendid  vision 
was  gone,  and  there  was  nothing  more  to 
see  except  every- day  black  carriages,  which 
seemed  very  tame  after  the  state  coaches. 
After  the  procession  proper  had  passed, 
there  came  an  indiscriminate  medley  of 
things  that  had  been  accumulating  behind 
the  detachment  of  police  who  had  kept  the 
road  clear.     The  dam  once  removed,  they 


THE  CEOWD.  135 

swept  down  upon  us  like  a  flood :  the 
populace  in  all  degrees  of  mud  and  jol- 
lity ;  big-bugs  with  gold  lace  in  kurumas ; 
bigger  bugs  with  more  gold  lace  in  car- 
riages ;  horsemen,  foot-soldiers,  artillery, 
—  all  in  one  grand  melee.  Why  nobody 
was  walked  on  by  the  horses  or  run  over 
by  the  gun-carriages  I  do  not  at  all  un- 
derstand, but  nobody  was,  at  least  in  our 
neighborhood.  We  were  very  glad  to  get 
out  of  the  crowd  and  back  into  the  school- 
house,  for  beside  the  danger  we  were  in 
of  being  trampled  on,  our  feet  were  numb 
from  standing  so  long  on  ground  that  had 
been  covered  with  snow  only  an  hour  or 
two  before.  We  remained  at  school  long 
enough  to  receive  notice  of  a  holiday  the 
next  day,  and  then  came  home,  but  went 
out  again  as  soon  as  we  had  finished  din- 
ner, to  see  what  we  could  of  the  illumi- 
nations. We  did  not  try  to  go  to  the 
places  where  the  decorations  were  finest, 
but  made  a  complete  circuit  of  the  palace 
grounds,  and  enjoyed  very  much  the  alter- 
nations of  moonlight,  lantern  light,  elec- 
tric light,  and  gaslight  that  our  ride  gave 
us.  When  we  came  into  the  great  open 
space  in  front  of  the  palace,  a  space  which 


136  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

was  almost  as  light  as  day  with  the  electric 
lights,  the  invited  guests  were  just  going 
in  to  the  Emperor's  reception,  and  every- 
thing was  very  gay.  Fireworks  were  being 
set  off  somewhere  on  the  palace  grounds, 
and  fine  ones  they  were,  too,  so  that  when 
we  reached  home  we  thought  that  we  had 
had  a  very  good  time,  though  by  avoiding 
the  crowd  we  had  also  avoided  the  best  of 
the  show. 

February  15. 

My  last  letter  took  up  simply  the  festiv- 
ities of  Monday,  but  all  day  Tuesday  the 
city  kept  holiday  as  well.  The  Emperor 
made  stately  progress  through  another 
part  of  the  city,  and  those  who  had  not 
had  a  chance  to  see  him  the  day  before 
might  get  front  places  this  time.  I  re- 
mained indoors,  except  for  a  short  horse- 
back ride,  until  evening,  when  I  joined 
Mine  at  the  house  of  her  married  sister, 
who  lives  close  to  the  business  part  of  the 
town,  to  take  supper  there,  and  then  go 
out  to  mix  with  the  crowd  and  see  what 
was  going  on.  I  reached  there  just  after 
dark,  and  my  friends  insisted  that  I  should 
go  out  at  once  in  my  kuruma  and  ride 
along  the  principal  thoroughfare  to  Nihom- 


FESTIVAL  DECORATIONS.  137 

bashi,  one  of  the  great  bridges  of  the 
city.  This  street  was  the  finest  show  that 
I  have  seen  yet.  It  was  spanned  by  a 
succession  of  magnificent  green  arches, 
no  two  alike,  set  with  electric  lights,  hung 
with  strings  of  red  and  white  lanterns, 
decorated  with  the  imperial  chrysanthe- 
mum, or  with  great  Chinese  letters  made 
entirely  of  small  oranges  set  into  the  green 
of  the  arch.  Under  these  arches  surged 
the  crowd  of  holiday-makers  in  their  best 
clothes,  —  men,  women,  and  children,  with 
open  mouths  and  upturned  faces,  trying 
to  look  all  ways  at  once.  The  buildings 
on  both  sides  of  the  street  were  hung  with 
festoons  of  flags  and  lanterns  from  foun- 
dation to  roof,  and  their  wide,  open  fronts 
were  brightly  lighted,  showing  aesthetic 
backgrounds  of  screens,  brought  out  from 
storehouses  for  the  occasion,  and  which 
completely  hid  the  ordinary  stock-in-trade, 
turning  the  shops,  for  the  time  being, 
into  dainty  little  parlors.  Upon  the  floors, 
which  were,  in  many  cases,  covered  with 
scarlet  blankets,  sat  the  shop-keepers  and 
their  families,  often  entertaining  parties 
of  friends  with  tea  and  cake  in  pretty 
dishes.     These  interiors,  with  their  bright- 


138  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

ness  and  their  suggestions  of  pleasant 
social  life,  added  a  final  charm  to  a  scene 
that  was  more  like  dreamland  than  like 
reality,  and  I  had  to  keep  punching  myself 
to  make  myself  believe  that  I  was  really 
awake  and  in  my  right  mind.  I  went  on 
in  my  kuruma  as  far  as  I  dared  (there 
were  five  miles  of  just  this  kind  of  thing), 
but  I  had  to  come  back  before  seeing  it  all, 
for  I  was  afraid  that  my  friends  would  be 
waiting  supper  for  me.  I  found,  however, 
that,  owing  to  the  rush  of  business  that 
night,  the  eels  and  rice  that  had  been 
ordered  from  an  eel-shop  close  by  had  not 
yet  arrived.  At  last,  just  as  we  had  become 
so  hungry  that  we  were  trying  to  satisfy 
our  appetites  on  rice  and  sea-weed,  the  eels 
made  their  appearance,  delicately  broiled, 
and  laid  upon  mounds,  of  rice  in  square, 
lacquered  boxes,  one  box  for  each  per- 
son, and  a  pair  of  chopsticks  with  each 
box.  For  a  few  moments  the  chopsticks 
flew  at  a  rapid  rate,  for  we  were  all  very 
hungry,  and  all  in  a  hurry  to  be  out  in  the 
street.  Supper  ended,  we  sallied  forth, 
this  time  on  foot,  a  party  of  six,  although 
we  soon  lost  half  our  number  in  the  crowd, 
and   only  found   them   again   as  we  were 


A  TRAGEDY.  139 

coming  home.  We  wandered  slowly  down 
the  street,  just  in  the  opposite  direction 
from  the  way  I  had  gone  before  supper, 
stopping  where  the  crowd  was  thickest  to 
see  what  they  were  looking  at,  and  then 
walking  on  again.  If  you  people  in  Amer- 
ica could  have  been  transported  to  Tokyo 
that  night  and  have  seen  things  as  we  saw 
them,  and  nothing  more  of  Japan,  you 
would  never  have  believed  that  it  was  any- 
thing but  an  agreeable  freak  of  your  imag- 
inations, there  was  such  an  atmosphere  of 
unreality  and  stagiuess  about  the  whole 
thing.  The  city  seemed  to  be  wild  with 
rejoicing,  and  to  be  showing  it  in  the 
tasteful,  dainty,  quiet  ways  in  which  the 
Japanese  excel. 

But  during  these  two  days  of  festival  a 
tragedy  was  also  enacted,  and  on  the  day 
on  which  Japan  gained  a  Constitution  she 
lost  one  of  her  most  enlightened  and  liberal- 
minded  statesmen.  I  am  going  to  write 
out  all  the  details  as  I  had  them  directly 
from  the  lips  of  one  of  the  cabinet  ministers, 
for  I  suppose  many  reports  of  the  affair 
will  reach  America,  and  it  may  be  inter- 
preted as  a  sign  of  a  reactionary  tendency 
and  an  outbreak  of  medievalism,  and  I  do 


140  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

not  think  that  it  can  really  be  attributed 
to  that.  The  facts,  as  they  are  at  present 
known  to  the  authorities,  are  these,  and  I 
give  them  as  I  heard  them,  on  the  morn- 
ing' of  Viscount  Mori's  death. 

On  Monday,  February  11,  as  Viscount 
Mori  was  dressing  to  go  to  the  palace  for 
the  promulgation  ceremony,  a  man  came 
to  the  door  of  his  official  residence  and 
asked  to  see  the  viscount.  The  servant 
replied  that  his  master  was  engaged  and 
could  see  no  one,  but  that  if  the  man 
wrould  wait  a  moment  he  could  see  Vis- 
count Mori's  private  secretary  and  state 
his  business  to  him.  When  the  private 
secretary  appeared,  the  man  at  first  re- 
fused to  explain  his  business,  but  at  last 
said  that  he  had  just  heard  of  a  plot  to 
assassinate  Mr.  Mori,  and  had  come  to  tell 
him  of  it,  but  that  he  could  disclose  the 
details  to  no  one  except  the  minister  him- 
self. More  than  this  the  secretary  could 
not  get  out  of  him,  and  just  then  Viscount 
Mori  himself  came  down  the  long  hall,  on 
his  way  to  his  carriage.  As  he  passed,  the 
secretary  said  to  him,  "  This  is  the  man 
who  wanted  to  see  you."  Mr.  Mori  stopped 
for  a  moment,  the  man  stepped  forward, 


THE  MORI  MURDER.  141 

and  before  any  of  the  bystanders  could  see 
what  he  was  about,  he  drew  a  long,  sharp 
knife  from  his  clothing  with  his  left  hand, 
while  with  his  right  he  seized  Mr.  Mori, 
and  then,  with  a  quick  movement,  plunged 
the  knife  into  the  minister's  right  side. 
He  had  not  had  time  to  pull  out  the  knife 
and  strike  again  when  the  servants  pulled 
him  off,  but  he  broke  away  from  them,  and 
was  at  once  cut  down  and  killed  by  the 
sword  of  a  policeman  who  came  in  from 
his  station  at  the  gate,  as  he  heard  the 
noise  of  the  struggle.  The  knife  was  a 
common  kitchen  knife,  such  as  is  used  by 
the  Japanese  for  cutting  up  fish,  and  it 
was  driven  so  deep  into  the  minister's  side 
that  the  handle  came  off  as  the  murderer 
tried  to  pull  it  out. 

Viscount  Mori  was  not  rendered  un- 
conscious by  his  wound,  and  messengers 
were  at  once  dispatched  for  doctors,  but 
all  the  great  physicians  had  gone  to  court, 
and  all  the  little  ones  were  out  enjoying 
the  holiday,  and  it  was  three  hours  before 
medical  aid  could  be  obtained.  During 
that  time  the  poor  man  had  lost  so  much 
blood  that,  although  the  wound  was  not  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  be  necessarily  fatal, 


142  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

he  died  within  twenty-four  hours.  It  was 
about  eight,  on  the  morning  of  the  11th, 
when  the  assassin  made  his  fatal  call,  and 
Mr.  Mori  died  at  eight  on  the  morning  of 
the  12th.  His  death  was  not  announced 
until  11.30  that  evening,  that  the  festivi- 
ties of  the  day  might  not  be  interfered 
with ;  for  here  in  Japan  a  man  cannot 
die  legally,  whatever  his  condition  may  be 
actually,  until  the  government  gives  him 
permission.  Accordingly,  though  Viscount 
Mori  drew  his  last  breath  early  in  the 
morning,  the  official  announcement  is  that 
he  died  at  11.30  at  night. 

And  now  as  to  the  reasons  for  the  mur- 
der. A  paper  was  found  upon  the  body  of 
the  assassin,  saying  that  the  viscount  had 
been  killed  because  of  sacrilege  committed 
by  him  the  year  before  at  the  shrines  of 
Ise.  It  appears  that  the  minister  had 
visited  these,  the  most  sacred  of  Shinto 
shrines,  and  when  there  had  failed  to  make 
the  customary  offerings,  had  refused  to  take 
off  his  boots  before  entering  the  sanctuary, 
and  is  said  to  have  even  pushed  aside  the 
curtain  that  concealed  the  sacred  treasures. 
Many  conservative  Japanese  of  the  lower 
classes  were   much   worried   by  this,   and 


THE  ASSASSIN'S  MOTIVE.  143 

were  afraid  that  the  protection  of  the  na- 
tional gods  might  be  withdrawn  from  a 
government  in  which  so  godless  a  person 
was  prominent ;  and  the  sacrilege  so  ran- 
kled in  the  heart  of  this  man,  who  was  a 
humble  employee  of  the  government,  that 
he  resolved  to  rid  the  country  of  its  perpe- 
trator, that  the  protection  of  the  guardian 
spirits  might  not  be  withdrawn  upon  the 
change  to  a  new  form  of  government.  The 
man  appears  to  have  been  just  as  much 
of  a  crank  as  Guiteau.  He  seems  to  have 
been  entirely  alone,  and  without  accom- 
plices. He  undoubtedly  committed  the  act 
from  patriotic  and  religious  motives,  and 
not  from  a  mere  grudge,  but  he  does  not, 
so  far  as  I  can  find  out,  represent  any  public 
sentiment,  nor  is  any  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation pleased  that  his  patriotism  and  reli- 
gion should  have  taken  such  a  form.  It 
is  a  misfortune  that  he  should  have  been 
killed  on  the  spot  instead  of  having  to  take 
his  trial,  for  such  summary  justice  often 
excites  sympathy,  when  a  legal  trial  and 
condemnation  does  not,  and  in  a  trial  much 
could  have  been  found  out  about  the  man 
which  now  will  never  be  known. 


144  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

February  20. 

Mr.  Mori's  funeral  took  place  on  Satur- 
day, but  I  could  not  go,  as  I  had  an  en- 
gagement to  speak  before  a  ladies5  society 
that  afternoon,  and  could  not  get  it  post- 
poned. I  did  have  time,  however,  to  go  to 
a  point  not  far  from  my  house  and  watch 
the  funeral  procession.  It  was  very  long 
and  imposing,  —  infantry,  cavalry,  and  ar- 
tillery, cabinet  ministers  in  carriages,  stu- 
dents from  the  University  and  high  schools 
on  foot,  and  a  great  number  of  lesser  per- 
sons in  kurumas.  Mr.  Mori  had  a  strong 
objection  to  the  extravagance  connected 
with  Japanese  funeral  customs,  and  every 
effort  was  made  to  have  all  things  simple 
and  as  he  would  have  wished.  The  money 
sent  to  his  family  by  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  and  the  gifts  of  others  as  well 
are  to  be  used  to  endow  a  scholarship  in 
the  University,  instead  of  for  the  pur- 
chase of  flowers,  cakes,  etc.  While  I  am 
on  this  subject,  it  may  interest  you  to  hear 
that  a  reaction  in  regard  to  this  particu- 
lar kind  of  extravagance  has  set  in,  and 
that  the  Kunaisho  (Imperial  Household 
Department)  employees,  from  the  great- 
est to   the  least,   have  signed   an    agree- 


RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY.  145 

ment  that  they  will  neither  send  to  fu- 
nerals of  others  any  gifts,  unless  they  be 
of  money,  nor  will  they  undertake  to  send 
out  from  the  afflicted  house  cakes  and 
rice  on  the  fiftieth  day  after  the  death,  as 
has  been  the  custom  hitherto.  This  seems 
to  be  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and 
beginning  as  it  does  at  the  upper  end  of 
society,  may  be  followed  by  others  the 
more  easily. 

I  was  visiting  one  of  my  Japanese  friends 
the  other  morning,  when  her  husband,  a 
man  of  prominent  position  in  the  govern- 
ment, came  in,  bringing  the  official  English 
translation  of  the  Constitution.  With  the 
greatest  pride  he  pointed  out  to  me  the 
twenty-eighth  article,  which  guarantees 
religious  liberty  to  all  Japanese  subjects. 
The  article  reads  as  follows :  "  Japanese 
subjects  shall  within  limits  not  prejudicial 
to  peace  and  order,  and  not  antagonistic 
to  their  duties  as  subjects,  enjoy  freedom 
of  religious  belief." 

We  had  quite  an  earthquake  a  few  days 
ago.  I  am  told  that  it  is  the  most  severe 
shake  that  Tokyo  has  experienced  since 
1854,  although  from  my  own  judgment  I 
should  not  have  thought   it  so  severe  as 


146  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

the  one  of  New  Year's  night,  of  which  I 
wrote  you.  This  most  recent  one  occurred 
at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  I  was 
still  in  bed.  The  house  swayed  and  rocked 
quite  like  a  ship  at  sea  for  several  minutes, 
and  I  had  some  thought  of  trying  to  get 
out  of  doors;  but  the  recollection  that  my 
double  front  doors  were  tightly  bolted, 
and  that  before  I  could  get  them  open  it 
was  probable  either  that  the  house  would 
fall,  or  that  the  shake  would  be  over,  served 
to  make  me  stay  quietly  where  I  was.  My 
own  house  is  not  nearly  so  frightful  in  an 
earthquake  as  some  of  the  larger  and  more 
solidly  built  residences,  nor  so  dangerous 
either,  for  while  my  house  is  built  with 
walls  and  windows  after  the  foreign  style, 
the  posts  that  support  the  structure  are 
fitted  after  the  Japanese  manner  upon 
rounded  stones,  and  the  whole  edifice  will 
stand  a  good  deal  of  shaking  without  worse 
damage  than  breakage  of  glass  in  the 
windows. 


CHAPTEE   IX. 
March  1  to  9. 

The  Wily  Betto.  —  Yasaku's  Domestic  Affairs.  —  Mar- 
riage and  Divorce.  —  Developments  in  Regard  to  the 
Mori  Murder.  —  Letters  from  Nishino  to  his  Family.  — 
A  Spring  Jaunt.  —  Toy  Collecting. 

Tokyo,  March  1,  1889. 

Some  time  ago  I  wrote  you  all  about  uiy 
experience  in  connection  with  getting  rid 
of  my  betto,  and  how  he  carried  off  most  of 
my  stable  furniture,  leaving  a  false  address. 
I  thought  that  the  man  would  never  have 
the  face  to  appear  on  my  premises  again, 
but  I  little  knew  of  what  effrontery  he 
was  capable.  He  went  off,  as  I  told  you, 
leaving  word  that  he  would  like  to  know 
if  I  ever  bought  another  horse  and  en- 
gaged another  betto,  but  of  course  I  did 
not  take  any  pains  to  keep  him  informed 
in  regard  to  my  establishment,  so  he  set  to 
work  to  find  out  about  things  for  himself. 

Not  very  long  ago  I  received  a  note  from 
an   English  lady  with  whom    I  am  very 


148  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

slightly  acquainted,  recommending  some 
betto  or  other,  and  saying  that  although  she 
did  not  know  that  I  was  wanting  a  betto,  her 
own  groom  told  her  that  I  did,  so  she  sent 
the  recommendation.  I  simply  sent  back 
word  that  I  was  not  in  need  of  a  groom,  and 
thought  no  more  about  it,  but  I  now  think 
that  my  former  employee  had  resorted  to 
this  device  for  gaining  information  about 
me. 

A  fewr  nights  ago,  Min£  and  I  went  out 
to  dinner,  taking  Yasaku  with  us.  No 
sooner  were  we  all  safely  out  of  the  house 
than  my  old  betto  walked  into  the  kitchen 
and  made  a  long  call  upon  my  cook.  His 
object  in  calling  seemed  to  be  to  establish 
a  claim  against  Yasaku  (who  now  adds 
the  duties  of  betto  to  those  of  kurumaya) 
for  six  yen,  apparently  because  Yasaku  oc- 
cupies the  place  from  which  the  old  betto 
was  dismissed.  Cook  San  seized  the  occa- 
sion to  make  inquiries  about  the  blankets, 
brushes,  etc.,  that  the  man  had  taken 
away  with  him,  and  the  groom  explained 
that  he  had  taken  them  by  mistake,  and 
would  bring  them  back  the  next  time  he 
called,  —  a  story  that  made  the  cook's  eyes 
twinkle  considerably  as  he  told  it  to  us. 


YASAKTTS  DIVORCE.  149 

It  seems  that  the  betto  is  still  negotiating 
with  Yasaku,  through  one  of  his  friends,  for 
a  money  payment  for  the  privilege  of  occu- 
pying the  place  that  the  former  groom  was 
put  out  of;  and  what  is  to  me  most  myste- 
rious is  that  Yasaku  seems  to  recognize 
a  claim  of  some  kind,  and  instead  of  refus- 
ing, is  simply  trying  to  see  how  much  he 
can  beat  the  man  down.  Mine  and  I  tell 
him  that  it  is  foolish  for  him  to  take  the 
matter  into  consideration  at  all,  but  Mine 
thinks  that  he  will  finally  pay  something. 

Yasaku's  domestic  affairs  amuse  us  very 
much.  When  I  engaged  him,  he  said  that 
he  had  a  wife  at  Utsu-no-miya,  and  that 
he  would  send  for  her  to  come  to  Tokyo, 
that  she  might  guard  the  stable  when  he 
was  out  with  the  kuruma.  We  have  been 
wondering  why  his  wife  did  not  come,  but 
the  other  day  it  came  out  that  there  had 
been  a  division  in  the  family.  Yasaku  had 
written  to  his  wife  to  come,  but  the  woman 
had  sent  back  word  that  she  had  work  now 
at  Utsu-no-miya,  and  did  not  want  to  come 
at  present.  Thereupon  Yasaku  replied  that 
if  she  could  not  come  now,  she  need  not 
come  at  all.  This  message  did  not  move 
her,  so  he  divorced  her,  and  is  now  on  the 


150  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

lookout  for  another  and  a  more  dutiful 
helpmeet.  He  thought  of  taking  Mine's 
cook,  an  exceedingly  green  and  stupid 
country  girl,  but  concluded  that  it  might 
inconvenience  Mine  to  have  her  cook  taken 
away,  and  for  that  reason  gave  her  up. 
Then  he  began  negotiating  for  some  one 
else,  but  that  fell  through,  and  now  he  is 
simply  on  the  lookout  in  a  general  way, 
with  a  view  to  making  a  satisfactory  busi- 
ness arrangement. 

The  whole  matter  of  marriage  out  here 
seems  to  be  entirely  cold-blooded  and  devoid 
of  sentiment,  though  in  the  higher  classes 
it  is  a  trifle  more  complicated  on  account 
of  etiquette  than  in  Yasaku's  case.  This  is 
simply  an  instance  of  what  may  happen  at 
any  time  in  any  family,  and  be  thought 
very  little  of.  If  there  are  children,  they 
belong  to  the  father,  and  may  be  disposed 
of  as  he  likes,  the  poor  mother  having  no 
rights  over  her  children,  no  matter  what 
the  cause  of  divorce. 

Almost  every  day  something  more  ap- 
pears in  the  papers  in  regard  to  the  Mori 
murder. 

The  following  clipping  from  the  "Japan 
Mail "  of  February  27,  containing  the  last 


LETTERS  FROM  NISHINO.  151 

letters  written  by  the  murderer,  Nishino 
Buntaro,  to  his  parents  and  brother  and 
sister,  gives  an  insight  into  the  Japanese 
mind  that  seems  to  me  helpful  in  under- 
standing the  people:  — 

The  vernacular  press  publishes  the  text  of  a 
letter  written  by  Nishino  Buntaro,  the  assassin  of 
Viscount  Mori,  three  days  before  the  perpetration 
of  the  deed  and  his  own  death.  The  letter  is  ad- 
dressed to  Nishino's  father.  It  was  intrusted  to  a 
friend  of  the  writer  for  direct  delivery  or  dispatch, 
—  the  distinction  is  not  drawn  by  the  Tokyo 
journals,  —  and  through  this  friend's  agency  it 
ultimately  came  into  the  hands  of  the  newspapers. 
The  letter,  literally  translated,  runs  thus  :  — 

"  I  write  to  say  that  my  act  in  killing  a  Min- 
ister of  State  is  not  the  outcome  of  a  sudden 
resolve.  I  planned  it  when  I  was  at  Tokushima 
last  year.  For  this  reason  the  visit  I  paid  to  my 
home  at  the  fall  of  last  year  was  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  bidding  you  farewell.  As,  however, 
it  was  impossible  to  be  assured  of  facts  without 
examining  into  them  at  the  place  itself  of  their 
occurrence,  I  went  to  the  Shrine  Daijin-gu  on  my 
way  to  Tokyo,  and  having  ascertained  by  inquiry 
that  things  were  undoubtedly  as  represented,  I 
made  up  my  mind  to  what  is  now  about  to 
happen.  You  have  often  told  me  that  the  duty 
of  a  man  is  to  die  before  his  lord.     Thus,  though 


152  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

the  world,  for  aught  I  know,  may  say  that  the 
manner  of  my  death  was  that  of  a  lunatic,  my 
own  feeling  is  that  it  will  be  as  that  of  one  who 
fell  on  the  battlefield  before  his  lord.  I  pray 
you,  therefore,  not  to  grieve  for  me.  It  pains 
me  to  think  that  after  having  been  for  more  than 
twenty  years  the  object  of  your  kindness,  I  should 
die  without  testifying  my  gratitude.  Were  I 
your  only  child,  there  would  be  no  help.  But 
you  have  my  brother,  Nobusuke,  and  my  sister, 
Michi,  and  in  them  I  hope  you  will  find  consola- 
tion. I  beg  you  to  make  arrangements  so  that 
Nobusuke  may  succeed  to  the  headship  of  the 
family,  and  with  a  thousand  prayers  for  your 
happiness,  I  bid  you  farewell." 

To  his  mother  Nishino  wrote  as  follows  :  — 
"  When  you  hear  of  what  is  now  about  to 
happen  to  me,  you  will  doubtless  be  shocked. 
But  in  truth  my  resolve  is  of  old  standing,  and 
the  short  visit  I  recently  paid  you  was  for  the 
purpose  of  bidding  you  farewell.  It  was  for  this 
reason  that  I  had  such  difficulty  in  leaving  you, 
and  that  I  could  scarcely  restrain  my  tears.  I 
have  observed  that  parents  who  lose  their  chil- 
dren forget  their  own  suffering  and  misfortune, 
and  have  pity  only  for  the  dead  child.  And 
certainly  those  who  die  of  sickness,  or  owing  to 
some  unexpected  catastrophe,  are  to  be  pitied  in 
that  their  death  is  not  of  their  own  seeking.  But 
I  die  of  deliberate  choice.     I  meet  my  end  with 


AN  ASSASSIN'S  FAREWELL.         153 

just  such  feelings  of  pleasure  as  a  man  experi- 
ences when  he  goes  to  a  feast.  Do  not  grieve 
for  me,  therefore,  in  the  least.  Had  I  been  lost 
at  sea  on  my  way  to  Tokyo  the  other  day,  or 
had  I  died  of  kakke  the  year  before  last,  there 
would  have  been  no  help,  would  there  ?  What 
men  will  say  of  me  I  know  not,  but  since  I  die 
believing  that  it  is  for  the  sake  of  my  Sovereign 
and  my  country,  if  you  suffer  yourself  to  become 
broken  down  with  grief,  you  will  only  show 
want  of  spirit.  I  pray  you,  when  I  am  gone,  to 
bestow  your  care  on  Nobusuke  and  Michi  in  my 
stead,  and  thus  I  bid  you  farewell." 

To  his  brother  and  sister,  both  younger  than 
himself,  he  also  addressed  the  following  letter  : 

"I  am  sure  that  you  continue  to  be  always  du- 
tiful to  your  parents  and  diligent  at  your  studies. 
I  intrust  our  father  and  mother  to  your  care 
after  I,  your  brother  Buntaro,  am  dead.  Never 
forget,  I  pray  you,  that  you  are  children  of  the 
house  of  Nishino  and  people  of  the  Empire  of 
Japan.  If  you  remember  unfailingly  that  you 
are  children  of  the  house  of  Nishino,  the  instinct 
of  filial  obedience  will  come  to  you  of  its  own 
accord ;  if  you  do  not  forget  that  you  are  of  the 
people  of  the  Empire  of  Japan,  loyalty  and 
patriotism  will  be  with  you  of   themselves." 

Nishino  wrote  also  to  the  friend  to  whose 
care  he  intrusted  the  above  letters  for  delivery 
to  his  family.     The   name  of   this  friend  is  not 


154  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

published,  but  the  letter  addressed  to  him  was  as 
follows :  — 

"  After  my  visit  to  Tokushima  last  summer,  the 
events  of  the  time  dwelt  much  in  my  thoughts, 
and  since  my  return  to  Tokyo,  on  the  8th  of 
January,  I  have  seen  nothing  of  you.  I  am  now 
about  to  kill  Mori,  Minister  of  State.  If  I  suc- 
ceed, I  shall  not  regret  to  die.  And  even  though 
the  misfortune  of  failing  to  achieve  my  purpose 
overtake  me,  I  believe  that  I  shall  not  die  a 
dog's  death  ;  for  some  one  will  surely  be  inspired 
to  prosecute  my  aim.  Succeed  or  fail,  I  shall  at 
least  have  done  something  towards  correcting 
the  degenerate  spirit  of  the  people  of  the  country 
of  the  gods.  It  will  be  as  though  I  fell  on  the 
battlefield  before  my  lord's  charger.  I  pray 
you  to  take  heed  for  me,  so  that  after  I  am  dead 
men  may  know  that  Buntaro  was  not  mad. 

"P.  S.  Let  me  entreat  you  to  send  the  accom- 
panying letters  to  my  father,  mother,  brother, 
and  sister,  after  I  am  dead.  I  have  intrusted 
them  to  one  or  two  other  persons  also,  lest 
through  fear  of  suspicion  they  might  not  be  for- 
warded to  my  parents." 

There  is  now,  it  seems,  a  good  deal  of 
approval  expressed  in  private  for  the  spirit 
that  prompted  the  murder,  though  few  go 
so  far  as  to  approve  of  the  murder  itself. 
Old  Mr.  Nishino,  the  father  of  the  assas- 


SPRING   WEATHER.  155 

sin,  receives  many  letters  of  condolence, 
in  which  his  son  is  not  in  the  least  con- 
demned. 

It  is  now  said  that  Mr.  Mori  did  not 
commit  the  sacrilege  of  which  he  was  at 
first  accused,  but  simply  pushed  aside  the 
temple  curtain  with  his  cane,  and  when  re- 
proved by  the  priest,  bowed  and  withdrew. 
His  sacrilege,  according  to  the  latest  re- 
ports, consisted  in  being  a  little  angry  at 
the  priest  who  reproved  him,  and  in  not 
visiting  the  shrines  again  during  his  stay 
in  the  neighborhood,  nor  making  the  cus- 
tomary offerings  for  the  support  of  the 
temples. 

March  9. 

The  last  few  days  have  been  delightfully 
warm  and  bright,  so  much  so  that  one 
really  began  to  think  of  white  dresses  and 
that  sort  of  thing,  but  to-day  is  rainy,  and, 
though  not  exactly  cold,  is  colder  than  it 
has  been.  The  only  drawback  to  the  pleas- 
ant weather  has  been  that  the  inhabitants 
have  regarded  it  as  a  sign  of  impending 
earthquakes  or  volcanic  disturbances,  and 
so  I  have  gone  to  bed  every  night  won- 
dering whether  my  house  would  tumble 
about  my  ears  before  morning,  or  whether 


156  A  'JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

I  might  not  be  buried  under  a  shower  of 
mud  or  lava  from  some  hitherto  unsus- 
pected volcanic  blow-hole.  Since  feeling 
one  or  two  lively  earthquakes  and  hearing 
all  about  Bandai  San,  I  do  not  feel  as  if 
this  were  a  very  certain  kind  of  a  country 
to  live  in. 

Last  Wednesday,  Mine  and  I  went  off 
on  a  little  expedition  together.  I  think  I 
wrote  some  time  ago  that  the  plums  were 
in  bloom  in  sheltered  places.  They  began 
early  in  February,  and  are  now  about 
at  their  prettiest.  Our  garden  has  some 
fine  trees  in  it,  and  we  enjoy  them  very 
much,  but  there  are  public  gardens  in 
Tokyo  to  which  all  the  world  goes  to  see 
the  plum  blossoms  at  their  finest,  and  we 
decided  to  visit  one  of  these  for  a  sight  not 
only  of  the  plums,  but  of  the  people.  My 
kurumaya  was  laid  up  with  an  attack  of 
indigestion,  so  we  went  in  a  double  ku- 
ruma  with  two  men  tandem.  It  is  the  first 
time  that  I  have  ever  ridden  with  any  one 
in  a  kuruma,  and  although  it  is  rather 
close  quarters,  particularly  in  thick  winter 
ulsters,  it  is  great  fun  to  have  some  one  to 
talk  with  and  ask  about  all  the  funny  street 
sights,  and  I  enjoyed  the  ride,  which  was  a 


FARMING  PROCESSES.  157 

very  long  one,  immensely.  Our  kuruma  at 
last  put  us  down  in  front  of  a  temple,  and 
we  got  out  to  follow  the  crowd,  who  had 
come  for  the  same  purpose  as  ourselves. 
We  did  not  go  into  the  temple  itself,  but 
walked  about  the  grounds,  which  are  nota- 
ble chiefly  for  some  queer  sacred  images  of 
animals,  and  a  magnificent  wistaria  vine 
which  will  be  worth  going  to  visit  in  a 
month  or  two.  Our  guide,  the  crowd, 
took  us  out  through  a  gate  at  the  side  of 
the  temple  inclosure,  and  we  found  our- 
selves on  a  country  road  with  ugly,  black, 
mud-covered  fields  on  each  side.  In  one 
of  these  fields  a  man  was  standing  up  to 
his  waist  in  mire,  turning  over  the  soft, 
slimy  mud  with  a  small,  wooden  tub. 
Mine  said  hewras  searching  for  lotus  roots, 
which  are  quite  prized  as  an  article  of  food 
here.  Farming  in  Japan  is  extremely 
dirty  work.  Much  of  it  is  done  under 
water,  and  done  literally  by  hand,  whole 
fields  being  clawed  and  pawed  over  with 
no  other  tools  than  the  fingers. 

But  this  is  a  digression.  We  had  to 
walk  quite  a  distance  over  this  country 
road,  but  at  last  turned  down  a  little  lane, 
and    soon   found    ourselves    in   a   garden 


158  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

planted  entirely  with  plum  -  trees.  The 
trees  were  so  trained  as  to  be  all  branches, 
with  no  trunks  at  all,  and  were  so  very 
old  that  their  bark  was  quite  covered  with 
mosses.  The  tender  young  blossoms  are 
regarded  by  the  sesthetic  Japanese  as 
much  more  beautiful  when  they  grow 
upon  a  venerable,  moss-covered  tree.  The 
garden  was  crowded  with  visitors,  from 
the  jinrikisha  man  in  blue  blouse  and  with 
symmetrical,  bare,  brown  legs,  to  the  fine 
lady  in  paint  and  powder,  silk  and  crape, 
pattering  along  on  her  high,  lacquered 
clogs.  All  were  gazing  at  the  flowers, 
and  seemed  lost  in  admiration.  In  the 
centre  of  the  garden  grew  the  finest  of  the 
trees,  and  upon  their  branches  were  hung 
bits  of  paper  on  which  their  admirers  had 
inscribed  poems.  One  tree  had  ten  poems 
hanging  from  it,  although  it  was  not  the 
one  I  should  have  chosen  as  my  favorite, 
while  the  tree  that  I  admired  the  most 
had  not  a  single  poetical  offering  upon  its 
branches.  The  crowd  eddied  and  whirled 
about  the  decorated  trees,  stopping  to  read 
the  various  poems,  and  making  temporary 
blockades.  We  sat  down  on  a  bench  under 
a  tree,  and  an  old  man  brought  us  tea,  and 


TOYS.  159 

then,  when  we  had  watched  a  youth  indit- 
ing a  poem  hard  by,  we  moved  on  to  make 
room  for  others.  Farther  on  is  another 
plum  garden  which  we  visited,  but  it  was 
not  as  interesting  as  the  first,  as  the  trees 
were  not  as  old,  and  there  were  no  poems 
on  their  branches.  On  our  walk  back,  we 
stopped  at  a  little  wayside  tea-house  and 
took  tea  and  sembei,  a  sort  of  toasted  rice 
cracker  wThich  is  very  good,  only  rather 
choky.  When  we  reached  our  kurumas 
again,  we  thought  we  had  time  to  go  to 
Asakusa  on  our  way  home.  I  had  not 
been  there  since  I  went  last  summer  in 
doing  the  sights  of  Tokyo.  When  we  had 
come  as  near  to  the  temple  as  the  kurumas 
were  allowed  to  approach,  we  got  out  to 
walk  the  rest  of  the  way ;  but  we  had  to 
pass  a  line  of  small  shops,  in  which  every 
conceivable  variety  of  toy  is  kept,  and  so 
attractive  was  the  display  that  we  suc- 
cumbed to  the  temptation,  spent  all  our 
time  at  the  toy-shops,  and  did  not  reach 
the  temple  at  all. 

I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  if  I 
undertake  a  collection  of  any  kind  while  I 
am  out  here,  it  will  be  of  toys.  I  think 
that  in  a  complete   collection  of  the  toy 


160  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

tools,  implements,  furnishings,  etc.,  one 
could  bring  home  the  largest  possible 
amount  of  the  every-day  life  of  Japan, 
and  with  the  least  possible  expenditure  -of 
money,  I  have  begun  with  a  ceremonial 
tea  service,  a  box  of  carpenter's  tools,  and 
a  small  kitchen.  This  last  is  the  most 
perfect  little  thing  that  you  can  imagine,  — 
a  Japanese  kitchen,  with  all  its  fittings 
and  utensils,  even  to  the  knives  and  skim- 
mers, the  dust-pan,  the  matches,  and  the 
god-shelf.  It  is  now  before  my  eyes  as  I 
write,  and  you  might  suppose  you  were 
looking  into  a  kitchen  through  the  wrong 
end  of  an  opera-glass,  for  there  are  no 
shams  about  it;  everything  is  made  as 
carefully  as  if  for  use. 


CHAPTEE   X. 
March  21  to  31. 

A  Sad  Holiday.  —  Japanese  Mourning"  Customs.  —  A 
Shinto  Funeral.  —  An  Earthquake.  —  Yasaku's  Wed- 
ding. —  Questions  on  John's  Gospel. 

Tokyo,  March  21,  1889. 

Yesterday  was  a  holiday,  but  not  a 
very  cheerful  one,  as  it  was  given  to  us  on 
account  of  the  funeral  of  one  of  our  girls 
who  died  on  Monday.  She  was  one  of  our 
best  scholars  in  English.  Mine  was  par- 
ticularly fond  of  her,  and  spent  much  of 
her  time  at  the  house  of  mourning  on 
Monday,  doing  what  she  could  to  comfort 
the  parents,  to  whom  the  end  had  been  a 
complete  surprise.  The  doctor  had  cheered 
them  with  false  hopes,  although  he  had 
known  for  some  time  that  there  was  no 
chance  of  recovery,  and  for  several  days 
that  the  end  was  near.  This  Japanese 
custom  of  always  saying  what  you  think 
would  be  agreeable  to  people,  instead  of 
speaking  the  truth,  softens  some  things, 


162  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

but  simply  aggravates  others,  and  in  this 
case  it  could  hardly  be  called  a  kindness. 

I  have  been  much  interested  in  what  I 
have  learned  during  the  last  few  days  of 
Japanese  mourning  and  funeral  customs. 
It  seems  that  when  there  is  a  death  in  a 
Japanese  family  where  the  old  customs 
still  prevail,  all  the  friends  of  the  family 
call  at  once,  and  they  must  be  received  by 
the  mourners  themselves.  In  this  case, 
the  parents  of  the  dead  girl,  instead  of 
being  allowed  to  sit  quietly  in  some  se- 
cluded part  of  the  house  while  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  family  received  callers  and 
answered  inquiries,  were  obliged  to  remain 
all  day  long  by  the  side  of  their  dead 
daughter,  and  there  receive  all  the  visits 
of  condolence,  and  answer  all  the  questions 
themselves,  on  pain  of  being  considered 
impolite  if  they  delegated  the  task  to  some 
one  else.  Then,  after  this  wearisome  day, 
at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  all  the 
family  and  the  near  friends  of  the  deceased 
were  assembled  in  the  room,  while  the 
body  was  placed  in  the  coffin.  The  coffin 
is  quite  a  large  structure  of  white  wood, 
room  being  made  in  it  for  many  things 
beside  the  body  itself.     All  the  little  things 


MOURNING  CUSTOMS.  163 

that  the  young  girl  had  treasured  in  life 
were  laid  with  her  in  the  coffin,  and,  in  ad- 
dition to  these,  many  packages  done  up  in 
white  paper,  the  contents  of  which  I  do  not 
know.  Then  the  coffin  was  closed,  not  to 
be  opened  again,  amid  the  weeping  of  those 
assembled  for  this  last  look  at  the  face  of 
their  loved  one.  I  have  asked  about  the 
significance  of  this  custom  of  burying 
familiar  objects  with  the  body,  and,  appar- 
ently, at  present  it  is  done  with  no  refer- 
ence to  a  future  life  of  the  spirit,  but  seems 
to  come  from  a  feeling  that  the  body  itself 
will  sleep  more  peacefully  with  its  treasures 
about  it.  Perhaps  it  is  something  the 
same  feeling  that  we  have  when  we  do  not 
like  to  take  a  wedding-ring  off  from  a  dead 
finger,  and  try  to  do  with  the  deserted 
body  whatever  the  living  friend  would 
have  liked.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is 
probably  the  survival  of  a  custom  beyond 
the  belief  that  prompted  it,  for  so  many 
races  bury  things  with  their  dead  that  it 
is  hoped  will  be  of  use  in  the  future  life, 
and  Shinto  is  so  old  and  so  vague,  that  this 
custom  may  have  originated  in  that  way, 
and  then  lost  one  meaning  and  gained 
another  in  the  course  of  ages. 


164  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

Wednesday,  at  one  o'clock,  the  funeral 
took  place.  I  received  a  card  announcing 
the  time,  and  etiquette  required  that  I 
should  either  attend  the  funeral  myself, 
send  something  to  the  house,  or  send  some 
one  in  my  place.  Mine  and  I  each  sent 
flowers  to  the  house,  with  men  to  carry 
them  in  the  procession  to  the  grave. 
Mine  sent  two  huge  bouquets  of  japonicas 
and  plum  blossoms,  each  as  large  as  a  man 
could  carry,  and  I  sent  one.  Each  bouquet 
was  set  in  a  stand  of  green  bamboo,  with 
the  name  of  the  donor  in  large  letters  on 
the  stand,  and  carried  by  a  white  -  robed 
coolie  with  a  queer,  black  cap  on  his  head. 

Mine  went  early,  and  attended  the  cere- 
mony at  the  house,  but  advised  me  not  to, 
as  they  might  not  know  what  to  do  with  a 
foreigner,  and  I  might  find  the  ceremony 
difficult  to  go  through,  as  all  who  attend 
are  expected  to  do  a  certain  amount  of 
bowing,  both  to  the  family  and  to  the  dead. 
Accordingly,  with  some  of  the  other  mem- 
bers of  our  household,  I  wrent  to  the  house 
and  left  my  card,  then  wre  waited  near  by  in 
our  kurumas  until  the  procession  started. 
At  its  head  rode  one  of  the  servants  of  the 
family  as  marshal,  then  came  a  few  police- 


FUNERAL  MUSIC.  165 

men,  next  the  flower-bearers  marching*  two 
by  two,  followed  by  the  great  white  coffin 
carried  on  poles  on  men's  shoulders,  then 
the  family  and  near  friends  in  carriages, 
and,  last  of  all,  a  train  of  kurumas  contain- 
ing teachers,  school-friends,  and  others. 
The  day  was  dismal  and  drizzling,  the  roads 
were  very  muddy,  and  the  ride  to  the  cem- 
etery was  a  long  one.  When  we  reached 
it,  we  stopped  in  front  of  a  chapel,  before 
which  were  drawn  up  two  lines  of  Shint5 
priests,  dressed  in  stiff  white  silk  robes  and 
wearing  stiff  black  caps.  They  were  pro- 
ducing wild  and  dismal  sounds  from  vari- 
ous wind  instruments  and  drums,  —  sounds 
that,  I  should  think,  must  have  been  ori- 
ginally invented  to  take  the  place  of  the 
wailing  for  the  dead  that  we  still  find  prac- 
ticed among  so  many  barbarous  races. 

We  went  first,  not  into  the  chapel,  but 
to  a  little  house  near  by,  where  we  sat 
for  a  while,  and  tea  was  served  before  we 
were  summoned  to  the  chapel.  There  are 
several  such  houses  about  the  chapel,  and 
this  one  had  been  set  apart  for  the  use  of 
the  pupils  and  teachers  of  the  Peeresses' 
School.  Here  I  had  for  the  first  time  an 
opportunity  to  notice  that  all  of  the  girls 


166  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

were  in  Japanese  full  dress,  —  a  kimono 
of  some  plain  colored  crape,  with  the  mon 
or  crest  stamped  on  the  back  and  sleeves 
in  white.  With  this  costume  two  white 
silk  undergarments  are  worn,  showing 
along  the  edges  of  the  dark  kimono.  It 
seems  that  this  dress  is  the  correct  thing 
for  funerals  as  well  as  for  more  cheerful 
social  gatherings. 

Soon  we  were  summoned  to  the  chapel, 
where  we  found  the  family  and  near  friends 
already  seated.  The  coffin  occupied  the 
back  of  the  room  in  the  centre,  and  in  front 
of  it  a  Shinto  priest  in  white  silk  was  read- 
ing aloud  from  a  scroll.  He  was  kneeling, 
and  I  supposed  that  it  was  a  prayer,  but 
learned  afterward  that  it  was  an  account 
of  our  little  friend's  short  life.  The  school- 
girls were  much  moved  by  it,  and  the  scene 
was  most  impressive.  After  the  priest  had 
finished,  the  wild  music  began  again,  a 
small  stand  was  brought  and  placed  in  front 
of  the  coffin,  and  another  stand  on  which 
were  a  quantity  of  green  sprays,  each  tied 
with  a  white  paper  streamer,  was  placed  in 
front  of  one  of  the  priests.  Then  the  girl's 
elder  brother,  the  one  of  the  family  nearest 
to  her  in  age,  came  forward,  clothed  in  a 


FUNERAL  CEREMONIES.  167 

white  mourning'  garment  and  with  straw 
shoes  on  his  feet.  The  priest  handed  him 
a  green  spray,  he  placed  it  on  the  table  in 
front  of  the  coffin,  stepped  back  three  paces, 
and  bowed  low  in  a  last  farewell  to  his  sis- 
ter. After  him  came  the  other  brothers 
and  sisters,  dressed  in  white,  the  girls  with 
their  hair  flowing  and  tied  just  at  the  neck 
with  a  white  cord.  After  them  the  father 
and  mother,  the  near  friends,  and  last  of 
all  those  less  intimate,  placed  each  a  sin- 
gle spray  upon  the  coffin  and  bowed  fare- 
well. I  went  among  the  last,  and  bowed 
my  good-by  to  my  little  pupil  just  as  I  had 
so  often  bowed  to  her  in  school.  This  was 
the  end  of  the  ceremony,  and  we  went  back 
to  the  house  until  the  coffin  had  been  car- 
ried to  the  grave,  and  then  came  away. 
The  relatives  and  intimate  friends  followed 
the  coffin  to  the  grave  and  saw  it  lowered. 
The  green  sprays  were  placed  upon  it  and  a 
tall  wooden  post  set  over  it,  to  be  replaced 
at  the  end  of  a  year  by  a  stone.  I  was 
curious  to  know  why  the  elder  brother  was 
the  chief  mourner  when  the  child's  par- 
ents were  living,  and  made  inquiries  on  that 
point.  I  was  told  that  in  Japan  there  is  no 
ceremonial  mourning  for  those  below  one 


168  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

in  rank,  consequently  parents  never  wear 
mourning  for  a  child,  nor  indeed  is  it  com- 
mon for  the  parents  to  even  attend  the 
funeral,  although  in  this  instance  they 
broke  through  the  custom  and  went.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  parents  should  not  go 
to  a  ball  to-morrow,  so  far  as  the  etiquette 
of  the  country  is  concerned.  Hence  the 
person  in  the  family  who  is  nearest  of  kin 
and  next  below  in  rank  to  the  deceased  is 
the  chief  mourner.  He  is  the  first  to  bow 
before  the  coffin  at  the  funeral,  and  walks 
first  in  the  funeral  procession,  and  the  pre- 
scribed period  of  mourning  is  longer  for 
him  than  for  any  of  the  rest  of  the  family. 
I  asked  also  about  the  significance  of  the 
green  sprays.  They  are  for  purification. 
Death  here,  as  among  the  Jews,  carries 
defilement,  and  the  particular  tree  from 
which  the  branches  were  taken  is  supposed 
to  be  purifying  in  its  touch.  When  the 
funeral  ceremony  is  over,  as  a  last  act  all 
who  have  attended  it  and  so  subjected 
themselves  to  the  defilement  of  death  pu- 
rify themselves  before  going  back  to  the 
world  again;  having  done  this,  they  bow 
their  farewell  and  leave  the  body,  and  the 
branches  are  laid  away  with  it  in  the  grave. 


YASAKITS  WEDDING.  169 

March  29. 

The  excitements  of  the  past  week  have 
been  an  earthquake  and  a  wedding1.  The 
earthquake  took  place  the  night  before  last, 
and  is  the  third  quite  lively  one  that  we 
have  had  this  winter.  It  is  true  that  one 
does  become  more  afraid  of  earthquakes  the 
more  one  knows  of  them,  and  this  last  one 
really  frightened  me  a  good  deal,  partly,  I 
think,  because  it  occurred  in  the  dead  of 
night,  waking  me  out  of  a  sound  sleep,  and 
so  taking  me  at  a  disadvantage.  People 
are  beginning  to  feel  as  if  these  unusually 
lively  shakes  might  be  premonitions  of 
something  worse,  although  I  should  sup- 
pose that  Bandai  San  might  be  enough  of 
an  explosion  to  let  off  steam  for  some  time 
to  come. 

I  do  not  know  exactly  how  far  Yasaku's 
matrimonial  affairs  had  gone  when  I  last 
wrote  about  them,  but  I  think  he  was  just 
looking  about  in  a  general  way  for  a  wife. 
Since  then  his  father  and  brother  have  been 
down  to  spend  the  day  with  him  twice,  and 
to  them  he  confided  the  delicate  task  of 
picking  out  for  him  a  bride  in  Utsu-no- 
miya,  and  bringing  her  down  to  Tokyo. 
One  day  my  maid-servant  announced   to 


170  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

me  that  Yasaku's  wife  was  coming1  to  him 
the  next  day,  and  we  were  all  in  quite  a 
flurry  of  excitement  over  the  news.  Ya- 
saku  himself  had  put  down  new  mats  in 
his  room,  had  purchased  a  complete  set  of 
housekeeping  things,  and  had  even  gone  to 
the  length  of  pawning  his  summer  clothes 
for  the  sake  of  having  some  stylish  cards 
with  his  name  on  them  in  Japanese  and 
Roman  letters,  though  of  the  latter  alpha- 
bet he  is  totally  ignorant.  The  next  day 
was  terribly  rainy,  but  Yasaku  was  cheer- 
ful and  expectant.  He  expended  about  two 
dollars  in  the  purchase  of  a  fine  wedding 
feast,  and  when  evening  came  and  no  wife 
had  appeared,  Yasaku  began  to  feel  rather 
mad,  especially  as  there  would  not  be  an- 
other lucky  day  for  the  marriage  within 
ten  days  or  a  fortnight,  and  no  Japanese 
of  his  class  would  dare  to  be  married  on 
any  but  a  lucky  day.  When  it  finally  be- 
came evident  that  the  bride  was  not  com- 
ing, Yasaku  wrote  a  letter  to  his  relatives, 
in  which  he  said  that  if  they  really  meant 
to  get  him  a  wife,  he  wished  they  would 
send  her  along  without  further  delay,  and 
that  if  she  failed  to  appear  on  the  next 
lucky  day,  he  would  not  have  her  at  all,  but 


A   VISIT  FROM  THE  BRIDE.  171 

they  could  keep  her  in  Utsu-no-miya,  and 
he  would  hunt  up  a  wife  for  himself  in 
Tokyo.  This  scathing  epistle  apparently 
had  the  desired  effect,  for  last  Monday,  by 
the  first  train,  the  bride  and  a  number  of 
relatives  came  to  town,  and  for  two  days  I 
saw  nothing  of  Yasaku,  as  he  was  busy  en- 
tertaining the  wedding  party.  Tuesday 
morning,  Mine  and  I  each  received  a  trib- 
ute from  the  bride  in  the  shape  of  a  box 
containing  about  fifteen  nice  fresh  country 
eggs,  and  Tuesday  evening,  0  Kaio,  my 
maid,  brought  in  the  bride  to  pay  her  re- 
spects to  me.  She  was  a  fat,  round-faced 
country  girl,  and  she  came  in  looking  very 
much  dazed  and  overawed.  She  had  prob- 
ably never  been  so  near  to  a  foreigner 
before,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  my  for- 
eign parlor  was  as  strange  to  her  as  it 
would  be  to  a  South  Sea  Islander.  She 
plumped  down  on  her  knees  before  me,  and 
put  her  forehead  on  the  carpet,  and  there 
she  remained  until  0  Kaio  got  her  up  and 
convoyed  her  out.  She  hardly  dared  look 
at  me  at  all,  and  was  so  visibly  embarrassed 
that  I  hardly  dared  look  at  her  for  fear  she 
would  turn  and  flee.  To-day,  I  went  down 
to  the  stable,  ostensibly  to  see  the  horse, 


172  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

but  really  to  see  the  bride.  On  her  own 
ground  her  manners  are  pleasant  and  not 
too  awestricken,  and  the  funnv  little  three- 
mat  room  with  its  miniature  housekeeping* 
arrangements  looked  very  clean  and  cheer- 
ful. She  will  be  in  clover  for  a  Japanese 
wife  among  the  lower  classes,  for  she  has 
no  mother-in-law  to  order  her  around,  and 
Yasaku  is  an  extremely  good-tempered  fel- 
low, not  given  to  drink,  and  with  a  mag- 
nificent income  of  ten  yen  a  month.  She 
will  have  nothing  to  do  except  cook  the 
meals  and  take  care  of  the  clothes,  so  it  is 
a  very  good  situation  for  her,  though  her 
tenure  of  office  cannot  be  considered  cer- 
tain. 

Sunday,  March  31. 

I  have  been  devoting  most  of  my  day  to 
answering  in  writing  some  puzzling  ques- 
tions on  John's  Gospel,  and  cannot  add 
much  more  to  this  letter  to-night.  I  have 
asked  the  members  of  my  Sunday-school 
class  to  bring  in  questions  in  writing,  as 
they  do  not  trust  their  English  enough  to 
ask  many  in  the  class,  and  then  I  put  the 
answers  in  writing  too,  that  they  may  study 
them  at  their  leisure.  I  enjoy  it  very  much, 
but  it  takes  some  time,  and  I  have  been 


QUESTIONS  ON  JOHN.  173 

three  Sundays  answering  a  list  of  twenty- 
five  questions  that  one  boy  brought  in,  for 
many  of  them  required  quite  long  and  full 
answers.  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  write 
a  commentary  on  John  very  soon,  at  this 
rate ;  in  fact,  I  feel  as  if  I  had  written  one 
already. 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  questions  :  — 

"  Why  did  Jesus  call  himself  not  the  Sou 
of  God,  but  the  Son  of  Man  ?  " 

"  In  John  ii.  4,  what  is  the  general 
meaning  of  Jesus'  answer  to  his  mother? 
This  demeanor  of  our  Lord  is  very  dissim- 
ilar to  his  usual  meekness  and  patience. 
Why  he  behaved  thus  in  this  case,  and 
once  in  verses  15, 16,  St.  Mark,  chap.  xi.  ?  " 

"  God  is  love,  not  anger.  Nevertheless 
it  is  recorded  that  '  the  wrath  of  God  abid- 
eth  on  him.5    Is  there  no  inconsistency?  " 

These  are  only  a  few,  but  will  give  you 
a  fair  idea  of  the  thoughtful  way  in  which 
my  boys  are  studying.  It  has  increased  my 
own  interest  in  the  class  very  much  to  have 
such  questions  handed  in,  but  of  course 
the  answering  of  them  carefully  and  clearly 
has  required  a  great  deal  of  thought  and 
time  on  my  part,  and  my  Sundays  have  been 
pretty  busy  lately  in  consequence. 


CHAPTEK  XL 
April  6  to  14. 

A  Country  Walk.  —  Feast  of  Dolls  at  a  Daimio's  Ya- 
shiki.  —  Picnic  at  Mito  Yashiki.  —  A  Day  at  the  Thea- 
tre. —  Japanese  Acting. 

Tokyo,  April  6,  1889. 

Our  vacation  began  on  Wednesday,  and 
in  the  morning  Mine  and  I  went  out  to 
see  Yuki  at  her  country  house,  where  she 
was  spending  a  day  or  two.  She  and  her 
husband  with  servants  and  children  move 
back  and  forth  between  city  and  country 
houses  in  the  most  surprising  and  inde- 
pendent manner.  The  house  is  entirely 
finished  now,  though  as  yet  only  partly 
furnished,  and  its  master  takes  great  de- 
light in  it,  and  spends  all  his  holidays  there 
with  his  wife  and  children.  He  roams 
about  the  place,  overseeing  the  workmen 
who  are  laying  out  the  grounds,  and  Yuki 
takes  walks  with  the  children,  and  enjoys 
the  freedom  from  the  restraint  that  her 
social  position  entails  upon  her  in  the  city. 


A  COUNTRY  WALK.  175 

When  we  reached  the  gate,  we  found  her  at 
the  head  of  a  train  of  children  and  nurses, 
just  starting  for  a  walk.  A  very  pictur- 
esque sight  they  were,  Yuki  so  bright  and 
pretty  in  her  soft -colored  Japanese  gar- 
ments, and  the  five  little  ones,  in  their 
many  -  hued,  quaint,  wide  -  sleeved  robes, 
dancing  back  and  forth  and  around  her 
like  so  many  butterflies.  They  were  tum- 
bling over  each  other  and  their  mother 
like  five  unruly  puppies,  and  were  enjoying 
themselves  in  the  most  uproarious  man- 
ner. We  found  that  they  were  on  their 
way  down  into  the  fields  to  gather  a  plant 
that  is  used  here  to  mix  into  a  kind  of 
cake,  so  Mine  and  I  joined  the  company 
and  wandered  about,  talking  with  Yuki 
and  watching  the  children,  who  were  very 
busy  grubbing  up  all  sorts  of  plants  and 
bringing  them  to  their  mother  to  pro- 
nounce judgment  upon.  Bot'chan  had  the 
services  of  a  policeman  (his  father's  body- 
guard), who  carried  him  over  the  ditches 
and  helped  him  to  find  the  plants,  while 
the  little  girls  were  attended  by  their 
nurses,  so  we  had  nothing  to  do  but  en- 
joy ourselves,  and  a  very  pleasant  time  we 
had. 


176  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

Mine  stayed  to  lunch,  but  as  I  was  on 
horseback,  I  was  obliged  to  go  home  and 
change  my  dress  and  come  out  again  in 
my  kuruma,  for  we  were  going  that  after- 
noon to  see  the  feast  of  dolls  at  the  house 
of  one  of  the  Tokugawa  daimios.  Mine 
has  an  aunt  who  is  one  of  the  ladies-in- 
waiting  in  the  house,  and  through  her 
Min6  secured  permission  to  bring  me  to 
see  the  ancestral  dolls  when  the  feast 
came  around  to  that  house. 

Most  of  Japan  celebrated  the  feast  a 
month  ago,  but  at  this  Tokugawa  Yashiki 
they  are  so  conservative  that  they  do  not 
keep  the  national  feasts  by  the  new  calen- 
dar, but  begin  their  year  just  when  the  rest 
of  Japan  would  be  beginning  it  now,  if 
Commodore  Perry  had  never  put  them  into 
communication  with  the  outside  world ; 
and  their  feasts  come  trailing  along  a  month 
or  two  after  the  same  celebration  in  more 
modernized  houses.  In  this  house,  more 
than  in  almost  any  other  in  Tokyo,  one 
finds  the  old-time  etiquette  kept  up,  and 
so  little  have  the  recent  changes  affected 
the  lives  of  the  dwellers  within  this  quiet 
place,  that  many  of  the  ladies  in  the  house 
had   probably  never   seen   a  foreigner  in 


A   VISIT  OF  CEBEMONY.  177 

their  lives  until  the  day  when  I  called 
upon  them.  Mine  gave  me  a  little  in- 
struction in  the  art  of  getting  down  on 
my  knees  and  putting  my  forehead  on  the 
floor,  but  the  present  style  of  American 
dress  makes  it  very  hard  to  do  the  thing 
gracefully,  and  my  joints  are  a  good  deal 
too  stiff  to  allow  me  to  be  comfortable 
during  the  process.  However,  I  did  it 
after  a  fashion,  and  felt  very  much  like 
a  fool  in  doing  it,  but  it  seemed  necessary 
for  me  to  show  my  appreciation  of  the 
kindness  that  had  been  shown  me  by  be- 
ing polite  in  some  manner  that  my  enter- 
tainers could  recognize.  Our  good  man- 
ners are  so  undemonstrative  that  only  a 
very  much  foreignized  Japanese  can  dis- 
cover that  we  have  any  at  all,  and  the  usual 
result  of  an  effort  here  in  Japan  to  copy 
foreign  manners  is  a  complete  disregard 
of  all  rules  of  politeness,  whether  Japan- 
ese or  foreign. 

Well,  to  go  back  to  our  feast  of  dolls,  — 
after  much  groveling  and  doubling  up  to 
the  many  waiting-women  who  came  to  the 
door  to  receive  us,  we  were  ushered  into 
the  room  where  the  dolls  were  set  out. 
There  were  five  or  six  red-covered  shelves, 


178  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

arranged  like  a  flight  of  steps,  running  the 
whole  length  of  the  long  room,  —  about 
twenty  feet,  I  should  think,  —  and  these 
were  completely  filled  with  the  dolls  and 
their  belongings,  some  of  them  hundreds 
of  years  old.  The  dolls  were,  for  the  most 
part,  effigies  of  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press, and  the  five  court  musicians,  though 
there  were  some  of  lower  rank,  but  they 
were  not  as  interesting  to  me  as  the  de- 
lightful little  dishes  and  utensils  illustrat- 
ing perfectly  all  the  furnishings  of  Jap- 
anese homes.  Many  of  the  things  were 
of  solid  silver,  most  delicately  wrought; 
others  were  of  beautiful  lacquer,  with  the 
Tokugawa  crest  upon  them.  There  was  a 
lacquered  norimono,  such  as  great  people 
always  used  until  the  overthrow  of  the 
shogunate  and  the  introduction  of  the 
foreign  style  of  coach,  and  a  lacquered 
bullock-cart,  the  Emperor's  private  con- 
veyance in  early  times.  Such  a  collection 
of  toys  would  be  a  delightful  thing  to  take 
to  America,  for  it  is  historical,  and  has 
been  making  for  hundreds  of  years,  and 
illustrates  ancient  as  well  as  recent  Jap- 
anese life. 

Before  each  Emperor  and  Empress  was 


THE  FEAST  OF  DOLLS.  179 

set  a  fine  Japanese  dinner  on  tiny  lacquered 
trays,  with  cups,  bowls,  chopsticks,  and 
plates,  all  complete,  and  each  dish  con- 
taining its  proper  food.  There  was  the 
little  sake  pot,  filled  with  the  sweet,  white 
sake  that  is  brewed  especially  for  this 
feast;  there  was  the  big  rice  bowl  with 
its  spoon  beside  it,  and  everything  ready 
for  their  majesties  to  step  down  and  eat. 
The  food  is  renewed  three  times  a  day  for 
three  days,  and  then  the  feast  of  dolls  is 
over,  and  the  dolls  and  their  belongings 
are  carefully  packed  and  put  away  in  the 
fireproof  storehouses  where  all  valuables 
are  kept. 

When  we  had  finished  looking  at  the 
dolls,  and  had  partaken  first  of  coffee  and 
then  of  tea,  because  we  were  afraid  that  it 
would  not  be  polite  to  refuse  either  bev- 
erage, word  was  sent  that  the  master  and 
mistress  of  the  house  would  like  to  see  us. 
We  were  conducted  to  a  waiting-room, 
where  fortunately  there  wrere  chairs,  so  I 
felt  more  at  home  than  I  had  when  sitting 
on  the  floor,  and  there  we  waited  for  some 
time.  By  Mine's  advice  I  had  brought 
with  me  a  present  for  the  master  of  the 
house,  of  American  photographs,  some  of 


180  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

them  views  of  the  city  of  Washington,  and 
others  of  Colorado  scenery,  and  these  we 
had  sent  in  upon  our  arrival.  While  we 
were  waiting  for  my  lord  and  my  lady  to 
appear,  domestics  served  us  with  tea  and 
sushi  or  rice  sandwiches,  and  the  year-old 
baby  was  brought  in  and  exhibited.  At 
last  there  was  a  rustle  of  silken  garments 
in  the  long  corridor,  and  the  daimio,  a 
young  man  of  about  twenty,  in  Japanese 
costume,  appeared,  with  his  wife,  an  ex- 
tremely pretty  little  girl,  not  quite  sixteen 
years  old,  who  looked  altogether  too  much 
like  a  child  to  be  the  mother  of  the  boun- 
cing, red-cheeked  baby  that  we  had  just 
seen.  She  is,  by  the  way,  the  younger 
daughter  of  the  last  of  the  Shoguns.  The 
young  man  spoke  a  little  English,  and  made 
an  effort  at  conversation.  I  do  not  try  my 
Japanese  yet  with  great  people,  as  I  am 
afraid  that  I  shall  not  be  polite  enough, 
though  I  can  get  along  pretty  well  now 
with  servants  and  shop-keepers. 

At  last  the  daimi5  wished  to  know 
whether  I  had  brought  my  dog,  and  when 
I  said  that  he  was  without  the  honorable 
gate,  or  rather  when  Mine  had  said  it  for 
me,  the  party  adjourned  to  the  porch  to 


BRUCE  AND   THE  PEINCESS.       181 

watch  him  while  I  threw  sticks  for  him 
and  made  him  beg  for  sponge  cake.  The 
little  wife  was  so  pleased  that  she  seized 
the  astonished  Bruce  about  the  neck  and 
embraced  him,  entirely  regardless  of  her 
elegaut  crape  dress,  and  then  we  went  off, 
Bruce  trotting  behind  my  kuruma,  fairly 
covered  with  glory.  Mine's  aunt  had  been 
much  pleased  with  Bruce  when  she  saw 
him  go  through  his  tricks  in  my  parlor, 
and  I  think  I  owe  my  invitation  to  visit  at 
that  house  to  her  glowing  accounts  of  my 
wonderful  dog. 

I  was  given,  in  return  for  my  photo- 
graphs, a  baby  doll  creeping  on  all  fours, 
dressed  in  crape ;  a  black  and  white  puppy 
with  raw-silk  hair;  a  silk-covered  box;  and 
a  chopstick  case  of  silk.  The  doll  is  an 
uncommonly  nice  one,  of  Kyoto  workman- 
ship, and  quite  old.  All  the  sushi  that  I 
had  been  unable  to  eat  were  sent  out  to  my 
kuruma,  neatly  done  up  in  white  paper. 

April  14. 

Yuki  had  been  planning  a  picnic  nearly 
every  day  since  our  vacation  began,  but 
whenever  we  had  our  arrangements  all 
made  to  go  on  a  certain  day  it  would  rain, 


182  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

and  force  us  to  give  it  up.  Monday  was 
my  reception  day,  and  I  ought  to  have 
stayed  at  home,  but  as  it  was  pleasant  at 
last,  we  went  on  the  long-postponed  pic- 
nic, and  had  a  charming  day  in  the  gar- 
dens of  Mito  Yashiki.  These  gardens  are 
the  most  beautiful  in  Tokyo,  unless  the 
Emperor's  own  are  better.  They  were 
made  in  the  feudal  times  by  the  Prince  of 
Mito,  and  the  place  is  still  called  the  Mito 
Yashiki,  though  the  old  daimio  mansion  is 
pulled  down,  and  on  its  site  stands  a  great 
arsenal.  The  pile  of  brick  buildings  and 
tall  factory  chimneys  makes  the  street  front 
of  this  yashiki  one  of  the  most  modernized 
spots  in  all  Tokyo,  and  though  I  have 
passed  the  place  a  great  many  times,  I 
never  suspected  that  behind  all  that  brick 
and  mortar  was  hidden  one  of  the  loveliest 
bits  of  Old  Japan  that  remains  in  the  city. 
It  requires  a  special  permit  from  the  Min- 
ister of  War  to  secure  admission  to  the 
garden,  and  only  the  favored  few  ever  see 
its  beauties. 

The  garden  is  laid  out  in  the  Japanese 
landscape  style,  which  is  so  like  nature  that 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  wooded 
hills,  the  lakes,  and   lawns,   and  running 


MITO   YASHIKL  183 

streams,  have  been  put  in  place  by  human 
hands.  The  garden  is  two  hundred  years 
old,  I  am  told,  and  the  trees  have  grown 
so  large  that  the  woods  might  be  primeval 
forest.  Here  and  there,  peeping  out  from 
among  the  green  shadows,  are  small  tem- 
ples, modeled  after  celebrated  shrines  in 
China  and  Japan.  By  the  little  lake,  and 
almost  overhanging  it,  there  is  a  lovely 
summer-house,  built  by  the  daimio  for  his 
own  use,  but  now  modified  for  the  plea- 
sure parties  that  are  invited  here.  There 
is  a  dancing-room  with  a  waxed  hard-wood 
floor,  and  a  dining-room  fitted  up  in  for- 
eign style  wTith  table  and  chairs,  and  with 
glass  instead  of  paper  in  the  shoji  or  slid- 
ing screens.  We  spent  most  of  our  time 
on  the  veranda  and  on  the  smooth  green 
lawn  in  front  of  the  summer-house,  where 
the  children  were  playing  and  picking  flow- 
ers all  day  long.  One  beautiful  flowering 
cherry-tree  trailed  its  drooping  branches 
almost  to  the  grass,  and  the  whole  scene 
- —  the  children  in  their  bright-colored  flow- 
ing robes,  their  hands  full  of  flowers,  the 
men-servants  and  maid-servants  following 
them  about,  the  green  lawn,  the  blue  wa- 
ter, the  background   of  hills   and    woods 


184  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

with  here  and  there  a  red-lacquered,  heavy- 
roofed  temple  peeping  out  —  made  a  pic- 
ture of  all  that  is  most  attractive  in  this 
Japanese  life.  It  was  perfect  in  its  way. 
We  had  a  charming  day,  and  were  more 
than  ever  glad  that  we  went  when  we  did, 
as  we  awoke  the  next  morning  to  find  the 
rain  coming  down  in  torrents. 

Wednesday  we  went  to  the  theatre,  a 
party  of  five,  —  two  foreign  and  three  Jap- 
anese ladies,  —  just  the  number  to  fill  a 
box.  The  play  was  a  part  of  the  story  of 
the  forty-seven  ronins,  and  was  given  at 
the  best  theatre  and  by  the  best  actors  in 
Tokyo.  It  is  the  most  popular  of  all  Jap- 
anese plays,  and  we  had  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  in  securing  a  box,  for  there  are 
such  crowds  going  every  day  that  boxes 
have  to  be  engaged  a  long  time  beforehand. 
I  am  told  that  whenever  a  theatrical  man- 
ager finds  his  audiences  growing  thin  he 
produces  this  play,  and  the  people  at  once 
flock  to  see  it. 

Instead  of  buying  tickets  at  the  theatre 
itself,  in  this  part  of  the  world  you  have  to 
buy  them  at  a  tea-house;  then  when  you 
go,  you  visit  the  tea-house  first,  and  there 
leave  your  extra  wraps  and  anything  else 


A  DAY  AT  THE  THEATRE.  185 

that  you  do  not  care  to  take  to  the  theatre. 
Here,  too,  you  partake  of  a  cup  of  tea,  and 
are  then  escorted  to  the  theatre  and  ush- 
ered to  your  seat  by  one  of  the  employees  of 
the  tea-house.  Then  all  day  long  the  tea- 
house men  look  after  you,  —  bring  you  tea, 
oranges,  cake,  and  lunches  of  all  descrip- 
tions, escort  you  back  to  your  room  in  the 
tea-house  between  the  acts,  and  care  for 
you  in  every  possible  or  imaginable  way. 
We  left  home  at  about  ten  in  the  morning, 
and  reached  home  again  at  eight  in  the 
evening;  so  you  see  that  theatre  -  going 
here  is  quite  an  undertaking,  and  one  not 
to  be  entered  upon  lightly  nor  in  term 
time. 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  tell  you  much 
about  the  play,  for  you  can  read  the  story 
in  Mitford's  "  Tales  of  Old  Japan,"  or  in 
Greey's  "  Loyal  Ronins."  I  am  not  a  dra- 
matic critic,  and  my  judgment  of  the  act- 
ing is  not  worth  much,  but  I  will  try  to 
give  you  something  of  the  impression  that 
the  whole  thing  made  upon  me. 

In  the  first  place,  the  scenery  and  cos- 
tumes were  good,  and  carefully  studied  his- 
torically, and  carried  the  audience  at  once 
out  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 


186  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

and  back  to  the  Japan  of  the  Tokugawas. 
The  acting,  so  far  as  gestures  and  move- 
ments of  the  face  and  body  went,  seemed  to 
me  almost  perfect.  The  voices  were,  to  my 
ear,  strained  and  unnatural,  but  I  cannot 
judge  very  well  about  that,  as  I  am  not  yet 
sufficiently  familiar  with  the  Japanese  voice 
under  stress  of  violent  emotion,  to  know 
how  it  ought  to  sound.  The  fact  that  all 
the  female  parts  are  taken  by  men  is  a  dis- 
advantage so  far  as  illusion  is  concerned, 
for  dress  and  act  as  they  may,  the  hoarse 
croak  which  is  the  conventional  voice  for 
women  on  the  Japanese  stage  is  a  draw- 
back to  one's  enjoyment  of  the  feminine 
acting. 

At  one  side  of  the  stage,  hidden  by  a 
screen,  was  a  chorus  with  instruments  of 
music,  who  gave  in  a  sort  of  chant  the 
thoughts  of  the  principal  performers  at 
times  when  our  stage  customs  would  intro- 
duce a  soliloquy,  and  the  actor  was  thus  left 
with  nothing  to  do  but  to  look  and  act  his 
part.  This  chorus  also  introduced  occa- 
sional comments  on  the  events  of  the  play, 
thus  keeping  the  sympathies  of  the  audi- 
ence flowing  in  the  right  direction,  and 
making  it  quite  plain  who  was  to  be  pitied 
and  who  blamed. 


JAPANESE  ACTING.  187 

The  play  itself  was  a  little  too  gory  to 
suit  our  present  taste,  as  there  were  two 
suicides  and  three  murders  performed  upon 
the  stage,  with  every  ghastly  detail  of  blood, 
muscular  contortion,  death-rattle,  and  final 
rigidity  given  in  the  most  carefully  worked 
out  and  realistic  manner.  The  play  was, 
however,  immensely  interesting  in  spite 
of  the  gore.  I  think  that  that  day  spent 
at  the  theatre  has  given  me  a  great  deal 
better  insight  into  the  moral  perspective 
of  the  Japanese  mind  than  anything  else 
could  have  done.  As  I  watched  the  prog- 
ress of  the  play,  I  began  to  understand 
more  fully  than  I  had  before  that  passion 
of  loyalty  that  made  revenge  the  one  ob- 
ject in  life  of  those  forty-seven  men,  and 
which  made  it  altogether  right  and  just 
that  they  should  sell  their  wives  into  the 
worst  of  slaveries,  sever  all  their  domestic 
relations,  kill  their  own  nearest  relatives, 
and  give  themselves  up  to  any  or  every 
crime  or  vice,  if  by  so  doing  they  could  fur- 
ther the  object  that  was  foremost  in  their 
thoughts  and  first  among  their  duties. 
That  the  acting  was  good  I  am  quite  sure, 
or  I  could  not  have  spent  eight  mortal 
hours  on  an  uncomfortable  seat,  in  a  house 


188  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

foul  with  tobacco  smoke  and  all  maimer  of 
evil  smells,  watching1  a  play,  the  spirit  of 
which  was  so  utterly  foreign  to  my  own 
ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  and  been  so 
entirely  carried  away  by  the  thing  that  I 
forgot  all  the  discomforts  and  was  for 
the  time  wholly  in  sympathy  both  with  the 
ends  sought  and  the  means  used  by  the 
conspirators. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 
April  19  to  May  2. 

The  Empress'  Visit.  —  Presentation  to  the  Empress.  —  A 
Buddhist  Funeral.  —  A  Garden  Party.  —  Questions  on 
John's  Gospel. 

Tokyo,  April  19,  1889. 

I  must  write  up  the  Empress'  visit 
while  it  is  fresh  in  my  mind,  so  as  to  give 
you  as  complete  a  picture  as  possible  of 
it,  and  then  hereafter,  when  I  write  "the 
Empress  came  to  see  us  yesterday/'  you 
will  know  exactly  what  that  means.  Mrs. 
Shimoda  sent  me  word  on  Tuesday  that 
the  Empress  was  coming  on  Thursday  and 
would  visit  my  class,  so  I  had  time  to  find 
out  from  Mine  exactly  what  I  was  to  do 
and  what  I  was  not  to  do,  and  to  work  my- 
self up  into  a  fine  state  of  excitement  for 
fear  my  bows  would  not  be  deep  enough 
or  long  enough  to  show  proper  honor  to 
an  imperial  visitor. 

When  we  reached  the  school  on  Thurs- 
day morning,  we  found  that  her  Majesty's 


190  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

baggage  had  already  arrived,  and  as  we 
came  up  the  staircase  we  caught  glimpses 
of  beautiful  lacquered  things  and  gorgeous 
silver  smoking-sets,  that  were  standing 
at  the  head  of  the  stairs  waiting  to  be 
carried  into  the  Empress'  private  apart- 
ments. There  was  a  look  of  preparation 
about  the  place,  and  all  the  school  at- 
tendants were  rushing  around  in  great 
excitement,  apparently  doing  nothing  but 
talking,  but  perhaps  really  accomplishing 
something.  When  we  went  to  the  teach- 
ers' room  and  looked  out  into  the  yard, 
we  found  it  full  of  blue-clad  coolies,  who 
were  resting  in  all  stages  of  deshabille  by 
the  litters  and  trucks  on  which  they  had 
brought  the  "  honorable  baggage."  The 
teachers  were  arrayed  in  their  best  clothes, 
and  while  the  ladies  appeared  quite  calm, 
the  gentlemen  were  rushing  about  dis- 
tractedly, with  hair  on  end  and  collars  and 
neckties  all  awry. 

Mrs.  Shimoda  was  fairly  in  her  element, 
for  she  is  thoroughly  at  home  in  court  cer- 
emonies of  all  kinds,  and  knows  exactly 
the  right  thing  to  do  upon  such  occasions 
as  this.  In  the  general  excitement,  the 
bell-ringer  forgot  to  ring  the  bell  at  the 


PBEPABATION  FOB   THE  EMPBESS.    191 

right  time,  and  school  began  nearly  half 
an  hour  late. 

I  learned  after  my  arrival  that  I  was 
to  have  only  one  class  during  the  morn- 
ing, as  the  members  of  my  two  higher 
classes  had  been  set  to  work  in  the  cook 
ing  department  to  show  their  skill  by  pre* 
paring  a  dinner  for  the  distinguished 
guests.  This  change  from  our  regular 
programme  left  me  with  nothing  to  think 
of  but  my  lesson  before  the  Empress;  and 
my  dread  of  it,  and  especially  of  the  ordeal 
of  greeting  her  properly,  grew  with  the 
thinking.  I  practiced  up  my  bows  with 
Mine  the  last  thing  before  she  went  to  her 
class,  and  then  sat  me  down  to  wrait  with 
my  heart  in  my  boots  until  the  dreaded 
moment  should  arrive.  However,  I  was 
not  without  distractions,  for  as  I  was  sit- 
ting by  the  window,  I  became  suddenly 
aware  of  four  fine  carriages  occupying  the 
girls5  tennis  ground,  and  began  to  think 
that  the  Empress  must  have  arrived  with- 
out my  knowing  it.  I  concluded,  however, 
at  last  that  she  would  hardly  have  come  in 
a  plain  black  carriage,  as  from  my  expe- 
rience of  their  habits  I  had  gained  the 
idea  that  the  imperial  family  always  went 


192  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

about  in  red  and  gold  coaches.  That  my 
conclusions  were  correct  was  proved  very 
soon  afterward  by  the  arrival  of  a  gorgeous 
mounted  official,  who  rode  up  to  the  front 
door  where  a  guard  was  stationed,  said 
something  to  him,  and  rode  off  again. 
Soon  the  hall  was  lined  with  a  double  row 
of  ladies,  for  the  first  four  carriages  had 
brought  the  Empress'  attendants,  and  they 
were  now  in  readiness  to  receive  her. 
The  next  arrival  was  a  mounted  soldier 
carrying  a  small  purple  silk  flag  with  a 
gold  chrysanthemum  embroidered  on  it. 
This  was  taken  into  the  house.  Then 
came  quite  a  cavalcade  of  soldiers  carry- 
ing red  and  white  pennons,  and  last  of  all 
the  red  and  gold  coach  that  I  had  been 
expecting.  A  gentleman  stepped  forward 
with  a  mat  and  laid  it  on  the  doorstep,  the 
ladies  came  out  to  the  carriage,  bowed  very 
low,  and  then  formed  a  double  line  to  the 
door.  Then  the  Empress  alighted  and 
walked  in  between  the  ladies,  followed  by 
her  two  companions  who  had  come  in  the 
carriage  with  her. 

That  was  the  last  I  saw  of  her  for  a  while, 
and  I  had  to  content  myself  with  watching 
the  grooms,  who  were  at  work  on  the  play- 


AN  EXCITING  MOMENT.  193 

ground  taking  out  the  horses  and  washing 
the  red  and  gold  coach.  At  last  the  clap- 
per sounded,  I  seized  my  boot,  braced  my- 
self up,  and  went  down  to  my  class.  The 
girls  were  in  a  state  of  great  excitement, 
and  at  first  I  found  it  very  hard  to  com- 
mand their  attention.  There  was  a  beau- 
tiful lacquered  chair  standing  close  by  my 
desk,  —  black  lacquer,  with  gold  chrysan- 
themums and  a  purple  brocade  seat.  We 
had  just  begun  the  lesson  when  there  was 
a  rush  along  the  hall  and  the  recitation- 
room  door  was  flung  wide  open.  The  girls 
rose  in  their  places,  and  I  turned  toward 
the  door,  expecting  to  see  the  Empress 
standing  there,  but  no  one  appeared  but 
a  tousle-headed  little  secretary,  who  gazed 
distractedly  into  the  room,  muttered  in- 
coherently, and  then  shut  the  door  with  a 
bang.  The  girls  dropped  back  into  their 
seats,  my  heart  began  to  beat  again,  and 
we  went  on  with  the  lesson.  All  was  going 
well  again  when  once  more  there  was  a 
sound  of  hurrying  feet,  once  more  the 
door  was  flung  noisily  open,  and  once  more 
the  tousle-headed  secretary  looked  wildly 
in,  talking  vociferously  the  while  to  another 
man   whom   he   had    in    tow.      Then   he 


194  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOE. 

slammed  the  door  and  rushed  off  again, 
and  my  pupils  and  I  had  a  good  laugh  to 
work  off  our  nervousness,  for  these  pre- 
liminary scares  had  not  done  much  toward 
calming  us. 

At  last  there  was  a  rustle  of  silken 
skirts  in  the  hall,  and  we  knew  that  our 
hour  was  come.  The  door  opened,  and 
Mrs.  Shimoda  looked  in.  The  girls  rose, 
and  we  all  stood  with  down-dropped  heads 
until  her  Majesty  appeared.  Then  we 
bowed  very  low  and  very  slowly,  kept  our 
heads  down  until  I  thought  I  should  suffo- 
cate, and  then  lifted  them  slowly  up  again. 
By  this  time  the  Empress  was  seated  in 
the  lacquered  chair,  the  girls  could  take 
their  seats  again,  and  we  could  go  on  with 
the  lesson. 

When  I  went  into  the  class  and  saw  the 
excitement  of  the  pupils,  I  thought  that 
if  they  were  so  nervous  beforehand  they 
would  make  no  kind  of  show  when  the 
Empress  should  finally  appear ;  but  there  is 
where  I  did  not  fully  understand  my  little 
peeresses.  From  the  moment  there  was 
need  for  it  they  showed  the  most  perfect 
self-possession,  and  I  have  never  had  better 
or  less  timid  recitations  in  my  life  than 


OUR  IMPERIAL  VISITOR.  195 

those  that  they  made  in  the  Empress' 
presence.  Our  visitor  stayed  for  nearly 
half  an  hour,  listening  most  interestedly, 
although  she  could  not  understand  a  word 
that  was  said,  and  by  the  time  she  left  the 
room  I  had  caught  several  good  glimpses 
of  her,  although,  of  course,  I  had  no  time 
for  staring,  even  if  that  had  been  the 
proper  thing  for  me  to  do.  These  glimpses 
revealed  a  small,  slender  woman  (though 
that,  of  course,  need  hardly  be  said),  rather 
loaded  down  by  her  heavy  dove-colored  silk 
dress  and  dove-colored  Paris  bonnet  with 
a  white  plume.  Her  face  seemed  to  me 
a  sad  one,  with  a  patient  look  about  it 
that  was  pathetic.  They  say  that  she  is  a 
very  intellectual  woman,  and  one  of  great 
strength  and  beauty  of  character. 

After  every  girl  in  the  class  had  made  a 
recitation,  Mrs.  Shimoda  went  up  to  the 
Empress  and  bowed,  then  our  guest  rose, 
the  class  rose,  and  we  all  bowed,  remaining 
with  our  heads  within  about  three  feet  of 
the  floor  until  her  Majesty  was  well  out 
of  the  room.  Then  the  ordeal  was  over, 
or  at  least  I  thought  it  was,  and  I  went 
on  with  the  recitation  feeling  quite  light 
hearted. 


196  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

At  last  the  clapper  sounded,  and  I  dis- 
missed the  class,  and  was  very  glad  to  go 
upstairs  to  my  desk  and  talk  the  whole 
thing  over  with  Mine,  who,  it  seems,  had 
been  sent  for  to  explain  in  case  the  Em- 
press should  ask  any  questions,  and  had 
been  standing  just  outside  of  my  door  all 
through  the  recitation  hour.  When  I 
looked  out  of  the  window,  I  found  that  the 
grooms  had  finished  washing  the  red  and 
gold  carriage,  and  had  covered  it  entirely 
over  with  a  green  damask  silk  cover,  deco- 
rated with  an  enormous  gold-embroidered 
chrysanthemum.  I  had  nothing  at  all  to 
do  for  the  next  hour  but  to  read  and  con- 
gratulate myself  on  being  through  with 
the  Empress  for  the  day,  but  when  that 
period  was  over  and  Mine  came  back  from 
her  class,  the  same  breathless  and  wild- 
haired  little  secretary  who  had  bothered 
me  downstairs  came  in,  and  announced 
that  the  Empress  would  receive  the  foreign 
teachers  as  well  as  the  head  Japanese 
teachers.  Mine  had  barely  time  to  tell  us 
what  to  do,  as  they  were  waiting  for  us 
then,  and  we  were  obliged  to  hurry  off  very 
little  prepared  for  this  new  interview  with 
royalty.   Mine  told  us  to  follow  her  to  the 


PRESENTATION  TO  THE  EMPRESS.    197 

door  of  the  room  so  as  to  see  exactly  what 
she  did,  though  we  must  not  go  in  until 
our  turn  came,  and  then  one  at  a  time.  As 
I  was  following  this  suggestion  and  mov- 
ing toward  a  position  in  front  of  the  door, 
I  was  seized  and  held  by  my  old  enemy, 
the  little  secretary,  who  had  evidently 
taken  the  idea  into  his  erratic  little  head 
that  unless  physical  force  were  applied  to 
restrain  her,  that  outside  barbarian  would 
rush  right  into  the  imperial  presence ;  con- 
sequently I  did  not  reach  the  door  at  all 
to  see  how  Mine  did  the  thing.  She  came 
back,  however,  very  soon,  bearing  a  large 
white  paper  bundle,  and  had  just  time  to 
tell  me  what  to  do  when  I  should  receive  a 
similar  one  before  Mrs.  Shimoda  beckoned 
to  me,  and  it  was  my  turn  to  go  in.  This 
is  the  order  of  ceremonies  through  which 
I  had  to  go  in  paying  my  respects  to  the 
Empress.  Upon  the  threshold  of  the  door 
I  bowed  once,  then  walked  straight  ahead 
until  I  was  directly  in  front  of  the  Empress, 
who  was  sitting  at  the  other  end  of  the 
room,  at  right  angles  to  the  door.  Here 
I  turned  to  my  right  so  as  to  face  her, 
stepped  a  step  forward,  and  bowed.  Then 
a  gentleman  came  up  to  me  with  a  tray 


198  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

on  which  was  a  large  white  paper  bundle. 
This  I  took,  lifted  up  to  my  breast,  put  my 
head  down  to  it,  bowed  again,  and  backed 
out,  bowing  once  more  at  the  door.  In 
handling  the  bundle,  I  had  to  take  pains 
to  hold  it  high,  as  it  is  disrespectful  to  the 
giver  to  hold  a  present  any  way  but  directly 
in  front  of  you  and  as  high  as  possible. 

The  bundles  contained  pieces  of  beautiful 
white  silk  (twenty-five  yards  or  thereabouts 
in  each  piece),  worth  here  about  twenty 
dollars  or  so,  and  at  home  possibly  twice  as 
much,  not  reckoning  any  fancy  value  that 
may  attach  to  anything  given  by  the  Em- 
press of  Japan.  In  old  times,  such  a  gift 
as  that,  carried  into  the  country  districts, 
would  have  been  worshiped  as  holy,  and  I 
noticed  that  when  I  showed  it  to  Yasaku 
he  took  off  his  cap  to  it,  and  stood  in  a 
most  reverential  attitude  as  he  looked  at 
it.  A  few  years  ago,  a  garment  made  of 
silk  received  from  such  a  source  would 
have  been  thought  to  possess  miraculous 
qualities. 

The  Empress  spent  the  whole  day  at  the 
school,  coming  at  nine  and  staying  until 
school  was  dismissed  at  three.  At  last, 
when  her  Imperial  Majesty  had  been  es- 


A  BUDDHIST  FUNERAL.  199 

corted  to  her  carriage  and  had  driven 
off  with  her  horsemen  and  her  footmen, 
her  banners,  and  her  lords-in-waiting  and 
ladies-in-waiting,  we  picked  up  our  books, 
skipped  into  our  kurumas,  and  rattled  off 
home,  rather  tired  by  such  a  long  strain  of 
excitement  and  grandeur.  I  was  very  glad, 
too,  when  I  reached  home,  to  order  my 
horse  and  have  a  good  ride  to  limber  me 
up  and  make  me  feel  myself  once  more  a 
free  American  woman  after  all  my  unaccus- 
tomed bowing  and  cringing. 

May  2. 

I  have  just  been  to  a  Buddhist  funeral, 
that  of  the  mother  of  one  of  my  friends. 
The  ceremonies  are  much  more  compli- 
cated than  those  of  the  Shinto,  though 
they  were  not,  to  my  mind,  so  impressive. 
I  did  not  go  to  the  house,  as  I  had  been 
the  day  before  and  left  my  card,  and  I  was 
afraid  that  I  might  be  in  the  way  there, 
but  went  straight  to  the  cemetery,  and 
there  with  an  American  friend  and  a  great 
many  Japanese  awaited  the  arrival  of  the 
funeral  procession. 

The  day  was  terribly  rainy,  and  the  mud 
was  very  deep,  so  that  we  had  quite  a  dirty 


200  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

walk  from  the  house  where  we  waited  to 
the  little  chapel  where  the  funeral  ceremo- 
nies were  conducted.  The  chapel  is  the 
same  one  in  which  Shinto  services  were 
held  at  the  funeral  that  I  have  already 
written  you  about.  At  this  Buddhist 
ceremony,  the  coffin  was  placed  at  the  en- 
trance instead  of  being  at  the  back  of  the 
room.  The  building  was  nearly  filled  with 
people  when  we  entered,  but  an  usher, 
when  he  learned  our  names,  led  us  at  once 
to  seats  reserved  for  us. 

The  ceremony  was  a  long  one,  performed 
by  a  number  of  gorgeously  attired  priests. 
There  were  candles  burning  before  the  cof- 
fin, incense  was  burned,  prayers  were  in- 
toned, rosaries  were  rattled,  and  there  was 
a  great  deal  of  chanting  by  a  chorus  of 
priests,  as  well  as  beating  of  drums  and 
blowing  of  wind  instruments.  A  bell  was 
rung  at  intervals  during  the  services,  and 
the  effect  of  the  whole  ritual  was  Roman 
Catholic.  The  priests  themselves  one  could 
have  picked  out  as  ecclesiastics  anywhere, 
by  their  faces.  The  ceremony  ended  as 
the  Shinto  ceremony  does,  with  an  opportu- 
nity for  everyone  to  go  up  and  make  a  bow 
before  the  coffin,  only  in  this  case  each  per- 


COUNT  OKUMA'S  PARTY.  201 

son  placed  a  grain  of  incense  on  the  incense 
burner  before  making'  the  farewell  bow, 
instead  of  laying  a  green  spray  before  the 
coffin  as  in  the  Shinto  ceremony.  I  hoped 
that  I  might  not  have  to  do  that,  as  I  did 
not  know  its  significance,  and  was  not  sure 
whether  it  was  bowing  down  to  strange 
gods  or  not ;  but  when  I  found  that  I  could 
not  get  out  of  it  without  being  rude  and 
possibly  seeming  to  dishonor  the  dead,  I 
thought  of  what  Elisha  said  to  Naaman 
about  bowing  down  in  the  temple  of  Rim- 
mon,  and  concluded  that  this  was  a  similar 
case;  so  when  my  turn  came  I  went  up, 
offered  my  incense,  and  made  my  bow  with 
a  clear  conscience. 

Saturday  afternoon,  there  was  a  garden 
party  at  Count  Oku  ma's  country  place,  to 
which  I  went  under  the  escort  of  American 
friends.  The  garden  is  a  lovely  one.  There 
was  a  band  hidden  in  one  part  of  the 
grounds,  refreshment  booths  were  every- 
where, day  fireworks  constantly  going  up, 
and  a  great  many  agreeable  people  wan- 
dering about.  We  walked  around  in  a 
desultory  fashion,  stopping  to  talk  when- 
ever we  met  an  acquaintance,  and  spent  a 
very  pleasant  afternoon. 


202  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

My  Sunday-school  scholars  continue  to 
send  me  in  written  questions,  many  of 
them  quite  curious  and  rather  puzzling.  I 
shall  have  written  a  complete  compendium 
of  theology  pretty  soon,  if  they  keep  on. 
Here  are  some  recent  ones :  — 

"  I  have  learned  only  a  little  about  the 
devil,  that  is,  the  king  of  evils;  it  was  an 
angel,  but  by  committing  the  sin  of  spirit 
fell  to  the  devil.  A  well-known  Japanese 
Buddhist  says  that  he  has  investigated  for 
many  years  whence  the  devil  came,  but  he 
never  found  it.  And  this  is  the  chief 
point  in  which  Japanese  Buddhists  argue 
against  Christianity  and  many  of  my  best 
friends  offend.  Teach  me  about  the  devil 
as  much  as  is  in  the  Bible,  and  also  the 
references  if  you  please." 

"  M.  Renan  and  the  followers  of  critical 
school  says  Jesus  was  born  in  Nazareth 
not  Bethlehem  as  the  sacred  writers  af- 
firms, but  on  the  other  hand  the  Evangel- 
ists had  ascribed  his  birthplace  to  the 
small  town  of  Bethlehem  to  make  ancient 
prophets  may  be  fulfilled.  In  short,  the 
Evangelists  deceive  us  in  this  matter,  and 
if  we  read  John  vii.  verses  42,  52,  we  are 
confirmed  that  the  rulers  of  Jews  and  peo- 


QUESTIONS   ON  JOHN.  203 

pie  was  ignorant  of  Jesus  birthplace  which 
is  Bethlehem.  They  hold  fast  that  Jesus 
was  born  in  Nazareth  not  Bethlehem. 
Why  ?  Are  the  people  of  Judea  all  igno- 
rant of  his  exact  birthplace  ?  That  is 
rather  improbable,  at  least  it  seems  to  me 
so.  If  it  was  so,  at  least  his  parents  know 
it.  Then  why  had  not  explained  the  fact 
to  the  populace  to  clear  the  Christship  of 
Jesus  ?    What  was  the  case  of  the  time  ?  " 


CHAPTER   XIII. 
May  8  to  June  22. 

Summer  Weather.  —  A  Matsuri.  —  Early  School.  — 
Perry  Expedition  Reports.  —  Bible  Class  of  School- 
Girls.  —  Fighting"  Fleas.  —  Japanese  Servants.  —  The 
New  School-Building.  —  The  Peeresses'  Literary  So- 
ciety. —  A  Speech  by  Mr.  Knapp.  —  Scandal. 

Tokyo,  May  8,  1889. 
The  summer  is  coming  on,  indeed  is  in 
full  blast  so  far  as  flowers  are  concerned, 
but  we  still  have  many  damp,  cloudy  days 
and  many  cold,  windy  ones,  and  the  air 
does  not  feel  very  summery  yet.  It  may 
warm  up  to  the  white-dress  season  any 
day,  but  to-day  I  am  inclined  to  shiver,  as 
I  sit  writing  in  my  winter  clothes  with  no 
fire.  The  azaleas  are  in  full  bloom  now 
and  are  lovely.  The  large  ones  of  all  col- 
ors that  we  cultivate  so  carefully  in  hot- 
houses at  home  are  entirely  hardy  here, 
and  bloom  in  the  greatest  profusion.  The 
wistaria  is  in  blossom  too,  and  all  Tokyo  is 
sweet  with  the  fragrance  of  these  two  flow- 
ers.    The  maple-trees  have  hung  out  their 


AN  EVENING  MATSUBL  205 

delicate  red  leaves,  much  redder  than  in 
their  autumn  brilliauce.  They  are  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  shapes  and  colors,  some 
delicate  as  fern  leaves,  others  a  perfect 
star  shape,  and  in  every  shade  from  pink, 
through  brilliant  scarlet,  to  deepest  copper 
and  maroon. 

Last  night  a  party  of  us  went  out  for  a 
pleasure  stroll,  chaperoned  by  Mrs.  Wata- 
nabe,  Mine's  sweet-faced  little  cousin,  and 
escorted  by  my  faithful  Cook  San,  bearing 
a  lantern.  There  was  a  great  matsuri  or 
festival  in  progress  not  far  from  our  house, 
and  we  walked  over  there  to  mingle  with 
the  holiday  crowd  and  see  the  sights.  Of 
course  we  could  not  have  done  such  a  thing 
in  any  great  American  city  on  account  of 
the  drunken  men  and  the  rowdies,  but  here 
there  are  no  disorderly  persons  upon  such 
occasions,  so  that  a  trip  of  this  kind  is  per- 
fectly safe,  though  not  altogether  conven- 
tional. On  both  sides  of  the  street  that 
runs  by  the  temple  where  the  festival  is 
held  were  little  booths,  their  fronts  lighted 
by  flaring  kerosene  torches.  Some  of  the 
booths  contained  trifles  for  sale,  flowers, 
candy,  cakes,  hairpins,  wooden  ware,  gold- 
fish, baskets,  —  anything   and   everything 


206  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

that  the  festival-goers  might  like  to  take 
home  as  gifts  to  their  stay-at-home  friends. 
At  one  place  two  men  were  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  candy,  pulling  it  as  we  do 
molasses  candy,  and  working  it  into  all 
manner  of  shapes  with  great  skill.  We 
stopped  and  watched  them  for  a  long  time, 
buying  six  cents'  worth  of  candy  as  a  sort 
of  fee  for  the  entertainment.  Other  booths 
had  curtains  hung  in  front  of  them  and 
wonderful  pictures  of  the  shows  to  be  seen 
within.  Outside  of  one  or  two  stood  a 
man,  crying,  or  rather  chanting,  the  various 
excellences  of  his  show,  and  whetting  the 
curiosity  of  the  audience  that  he  gathered 
out  of  the  crowd  by  lifting  the  curtain  for 
a  second  and  then  letting  it  fall  again. 

We  went  into  two  of  the  shows,  paying 
the  admission  fee  of  one  sen  for  the  sake 
of  seeing  what  lay  behind  the  mystic  cur- 
tain. The  first  was  a  theatrical  perform- 
ance by  monkeys,  which  to  me  seemed 
really  quite  wonderful.  The  monkeys  were 
finely  dressed  in  old-style  Japanese  cos- 
tume, and  they  acted  very  well,  —  fight- 
ing, weeping,  rolling  their  eyes,  trembling, 
and  displaying  all  sorts  of  human  emotions 
by  gestures  and  facial  expression.     It  is  a 


JUGGLERS'   SHOWS.  207 

mystery  to  me  how  they  can  be  taught  to 
do  such  things  just  at  the  proper  moment 
without  any  appreciation  of  the  part  they 
are  performing,  but  they  did  it  in  the  most 
surprisingly  natural  manner. 

Our  second  entrance  fee  took  us  into  a 
juggler's  booth,  where  an  emaciated  young 
man  in  foreign  dress  was  doing  some  exceed- 
ingly transparent  sleight-of-hand  tricks, 
and  it  was  so  stupid  that  we  were  afraid  we 
were  not  going  to  get  our  money's  worth 
of  amusement.  However,  when  the  young 
man  had  finished,  a  girl  came  out  in  a  long, 
embroidered  kimono,  and  in  that  cumber- 
some but  graceful  dress  performed  very 
cleverly  upon  the  slack  rope,  so  we  felt  that 
our  admission  fee  had  not  been  wasted  after 
all.  These  were  the  only  shows  that  we 
entered,  as  the  others  seemed  to  be  mon- 
strosities or  horrors  of  one  sort  or  another 
that  we  did  not  care  to  see.  The  signs 
outside  pictured  men  shaped  like  crabs, 
women  with  necks  so  long  that  they  could 
sit  still  while  their  heads  wandered  all  over 
the  house,  ghosts,  bogies,  a  series  of  pup- 
pets representing  the  life  and  death  of 
Nishino,  the  murderer  of  Mr.  Mori,  and 
various  other  penny-dreadful  attractions. 


208  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

On  our  way  home  we  stopped  at  a  flower 
show,  and  bought  a  thriving  rosebush  in 
full  bloom  for  six  sen,  and  two  large,  bloom- 
ing pinks  in  pots  for  one  sen  each.  While 
we  were  making  our  purchases,  the  mother 
of  one  of  our  little  pupils  met  us,  and  in- 
sisted that  we  must  come  into  her  house 
near  by  and  rest  before  going  home.  She 
was  so  urgent  that  although  it  was  after 
nine  o'clock,  an  unprecedentedly  late  hour 
for  visiting  in  Tokyo,  we  could  not  refuse, 
but  went  in  and  stayed  for  about  half  an 
hour,  drinking  tea,  eating  cake,  and  con- 
versing in  Japanese.  The  house  was  a 
charming  one,  in  the  daintiest  Japanese 
style,  and  the  host  and  hostess  courteous 
and  delightful. 

After  this  week  our  school  is  to  begin  at 
half  past  seven,  instead  of  at  half  past 
eight  as  it  has  done  all  winter.  I  do  not 
enjoy  rising  at  six  as  I  must  hereafter, 
but  it  will  nevertheless  be  a  convenient 
arrangement  forme  for  one  reason, —  my 
day's  work  will  be  over  by  half  past  ten, 
leaving  me  still  a  long  day  ahead  for  any- 
thing I  may  wish  to  do  with  it. 


PERRY'S   REPORTS.  209 

May  25. 

I  have  been  very  much  interested  lately 
in  reading  the  official  reports  of  the  Perry 
expedition  to  Japan.  The  books  were  given 
me  before  I  left  America,  but  I  did  not  find 
them  as  interesting  as  I  do  now  that  I  know 
the  country  and  the  people  from  actual 
study  of  them  on  their  own  ground.  One 
part  of  the  interest  to  me  lies  in  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  names  mentioned  in  the 
Perry  reports  as  names  of  high  officials 
with  whom  the  American  ambassadors  had 
to  do  are  the  names  of  the  fathers  and 
grandfathers  of  my  pupils. 

I  am  trying  now  to  start  a  little  Bible 
class  among  our  school-girls,  which  will 
meet  at  my  house  on  Sunday  afternoons, 
simply  to  read  and  talk  over  the  Bible  in 
English.  There  seems  at  present  a  pretty 
good  opening  for  it,  as  my  class  at  Mr.  Ko- 
zaki's  meets  in  the  morning,  and  I  shall 
have  plenty  of  time  for  the  other  in  the 
afternoon.  I  invited  two  of  the  girls  to 
come  last  Sunday,  and  find  that  they  can 
understand  the  simple  English  of  Matthew 
and  Luke  quite  easily,  although  of  course 
there  are  a  good  many  words  that  are 
new  to  them.     These  girls  of  ours  are  very 


210  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

sweet  and  pure  and  kind,  but  they  seem 
to  me  to  have  very  little  that  is  high  or 
ennobling1  to  occupy  their  thoughts  or  to 
strive  after  in  their  lives,  and  I  am  sure 
that  the  opening  of  Christian  truth  to  their 
minds  will  be  a  great  help  to  them,  filling 
a  place  that  is  now  entirely  empty,  or  per- 
haps I  might  better  say,  expanding  the 
soul  in  a  direction  where  it  is  now  shut  in 
and  cramped.  I  do  hope  that  I  can  inter- 
est them  in  the  study  of  the  Bible  so  that 
they  will  go  on  and  learn  more,  for  there 
are  opportunities  enough  in  Tokyo  now  for 
the  study,  if  I  can  only  get  them  up  to  the 
point  where  they  care  about  it. 

June  2. 

Our  warm  weather  has  come  at  last.  It 
began  with  the  month,  and  to-day  I  am 
wearing  my  thinnest  white  dress,  and  feel- 
ing hot  in  that.  One  of  the  evils  of  a  Jap- 
anese summer  has  already  begun,  in  the 
shape  of  an  army  of  fleas,  whose  ancestors 
have  been  living  for  generations  in  the 
thick  Japanese  mats  that  cover  my  bed- 
room floor.  To-day  I  have  concluded  that 
either  I  or  the  fleas  must  move,  so  mv 
three  servants   are  at   work  in  the  room 


JAPANESE  SERVANTS.  211 

overhead,  as  I  write,  trying  to  make  things 
disagreeable  for  the  enemy.  They  have 
carried  all  the  mats  out  of  doors,  and  are 
now  engaged  in  a  vigorous  sweeping  of  the 
room  with  insect  powder.  Occasionally  I 
hear  a  shout  from  Yasaku  as  the  enemy 
make  a  particularly  bold  stand  for  their 
homes,  or  a  stampede  on  the  part  of  0  Kaio 
as  she  retreats  before  the  hopping  legions. 
As  for  myself,  after  showing  my  servants 
how  to  use  the  powder,  I  fled  for  fear  I 
should  be  fatally  wounded,  but  not  without 
carry  ill  g  a  number  of  the  enemy  away  with 
me.  Bruce  is  also  wrestling  with  several 
that  even  a  profuse  powdering  and  brush- 
ing could  not  dislodge  from  his  long  hair. 
I  made  some  visits  yesterday  in  Tsukiji, 
and  among  others  called  upon  a  recent  ar- 
rival in  Japan,  who  is  now  going  through 
her  first  amusing  and  often  trying  experi- 
ences with  Japanese  servants.  She  is,  I 
should  imagine,  a  notable  housewife,  who 
has  been  accustomed  to  making  her  China- 
men in  San  Francisco  carry  out  her  orders 
after  the  strictest  fashion,  but  unless  her 
servants  are  very  different  from  the  ordi- 
nary Japanese,  she  will  be  doomed  to  dis- 
appointment if  she  tries  to  make  them  do 


212  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

exactly  what  she  tells  them,  in  the  way  she 
tells  them.  The  Japanese  servant  gener- 
ally does,  not  what  you  tell  him  to,  but 
what  he  thinks  is  for  your  highest  good,  a 
characteristic  that  is  quite  exasperating  at 
first ;  but  when  you  have  found  out  by  re- 
peated experiments  that  your  servants  are 
usually  right  and  you  are  usually  wrong, 
you  come  to  submit  most  meekly  to  their 
arrangements,  though  not  without  occa- 
sional yearnings  to  be  once  more  in  a  coun- 
try where  you  are  competent  to  conduct 
your  own  affairs. 

There  is  an  element  of  uncertainty  about 
all  things  here  below,  but  that  uncertainty 
seems  greater  in  Japan  than  elsewhere.  I 
am  more  and  more  convinced  of  the  advan- 
tages of  democracy,  as  I  see  the  workings 
of  an  aristocratic  form  of  government.  I 
do  not  think  I  have  written  you  that  a 
beautiful  new  brick  building  has  been  in 
process  of  construction  for  some  time  past, 
to  be  occupied,  as  soon  as  finished,  by  our 
school.  It  is  quite  near  here,  and  Mine 
and  I  have  watched  its  growth  all  winter 
with  great  interest,  as  we  thought  how 
pleasant  and  comfortable  the  new  building 
would  seem  after  the  ramshackle  old  one 


MOVING  THE  SCHOOL.  213 

that  we  now  occupy.  It  is  all  finished  now, 
and  workmen  are  engaged  in  laying  out 
the  grounds,  and  in  taking  up  the  trees 
and  shrubs  from  our  present  school-yard 
to  plant  them  in  the  new  place;  for  here  in 
Japan,  when  you  move,  you  carry  with  you 
not  only  your  furniture,  but  your  garden  as 
well,  shade  trees,  turf,  and  all.  For  months 
the  school  authorities  have  been  busy  choos- 
ing carpets,  curtains,  and  furniture,  and  the 
plan  was,  after  the  examinations  were  over, 
for  us  to  move  into  the  new  building  for 
our  graduating  exercises.  We  were  to  have 
a  fine  time,  and  the  Empress  was  to  make 
us  a  speech  in  person.  Such  were  our 
hopes  and  expectations,  but  at  present  they 
seem  likely  to  suffer  an  untimely  blight. 

There  is  another  school  beside  our  own 
under  the  management  of  the  Imperial 
Household.  It  is  a  school  for  boys,  corre- 
sponding in  rank  with  that  of  our  girls,  and 
is  called  the  Peers'  School.  Last  fall  it  was 
moved  into  the  buildings  of  the  old  Engi- 
neering College,  and  because  they  were  so 
fine  and  large  a  new  building  was  planned 
for  us,  that  we  might  be  equally  well  housed. 
Now,  just  as  our  new  school-house  is  fin- 
ished, the  authorities  of  the   boys'  school 


214  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

discover  that  their  accommodations  are  too 
large,  and  send  in  a  petition  to  the  Impe- 
rial Household  Department  requesting  to 
be  removed  to  our  new  building.  Of  course 
when  I  heard  of  it  I  simply  smiled  at  the 
audacity  of  such  a  demand,  and  inquired 
why  they  should  trouble  themselves  to  make 
so  useless  and  ridiculous  a  request,  but  I 
am  assured  that  this  is  no  laughing  matter, 
and  that  there  is  quite  a  strong  probability 
that  the  request  will  be  granted,  especially 
as  it  is  a  question  of  girls'  rights  against 
boys'  wishes.  I  am  fairly  boiling  over  with 
wrath,  but  the  worst  of  it  is  that  there 
is  nothing  to  do  but  boil,  for  our  school 
authorities  are  as  utterly  powerless  to  do 
anything  in  the  matter  as  they  would  be 
to  avert  a  typhoon  or  an  earthquake  that 
threatened  to  destroy  the  building.  They 
cannot  even  say  anything,  or  write  up  their 
wrongs  for  the  newspapers  and  get  public 
sympathy  on  their  side ;  they  must  just 
smile  aud  submit,  and  thank  the  Peers  for 
leaving  them  the  old  building  instead  of 
trying  to  grab  that  too.  I  am  quite  curi- 
ous to  see  how  it  will  be  decided,  for  I  can- 
not believe  that  the  government  will  do 
such  a  mean  thing  as  take  away  the  build- 
ing from  us. 


A  GIRLS'  LITERARY  SOCIETY.      215 

June  13. 

The  excitement  over  the  new  building 
increases  daily.  The  teachers  talk  of  re- 
signing in  a  body,  should  the  building  be 
handed  over  to  the  boys,  and  all  who  have 
influence  of  any  kind  in  any  high  quarter 
are  using  it  to  turn  the  scale  if  possible  in 
our  direction. 

On  Saturday  afternoon,  the  girls  had  the 
monthly  meeting  of  their  literary  society, 
and  as  it  was  their  last  meeting  for  the 
year,  and  there  were  to  be  a  number  of 
English  recitations  and  readings,  I  was 
urgently  requested  to  be  present.  This 
society  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  the 
English  society  that  I  have  mentioned  as 
meeting  at  my  house,  and  its  monthly  pro- 
gramme includes  literary  exercises  of  all 
kinds  in  Japanese,  Chinese,  and  English. 
I  think  that  it  counts  in  its  membership 
most  of  the  girls  in  the  school,  except  the 
very  smallest.  The  girls  run  it  entirely  by 
themselves,  and  do  very  well,  if  I  can  judge 
from  my  one  experience  of  it.  But  it  was 
not  the  society  in  general,  but  one  oc- 
currence at  this  meeting,  that  I  wanted  to 
tell  you  about.  As  the  exercises  went  on, 
I  noticed  that  one  of  our  higher-class  girls, 


216  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

an  extremely  interesting1  girl  and  a  favorite 
pupil  of  mine,  was  looking  rather  flushed 
and  excited.  At  last,  when  her  turn  came, 
she  rose  and  began  to  read  something  that  I 
supposed  to  be  a  poem,  from  its  rhythmic 
form.  As  she  read,  the  faces  of  her  lis- 
teners grew  more  and  more  serious,  the 
reader's  voice  began  to  break  and  quaver, 
and  one  by  one  the  heads  of  the  audience 
drooped,  and  handkerchiefs  were  applied  to 
the  eyes.  Two  or  three  times  the  reader 
had  to  stop  altogether,  but  each  time  she 
controlled  herself  and  went  on.  When  she 
finished  and  took  her  seat,  every  girl  and 
every  Japanese  teacher  in  the  room  was 
weeping,  not  quietly  and  decorously,  but 
passionately,  as  if  under  the  first  sting  of 
some  great  sorrow,  while  the  reader  her- 
self was  sobbing  as  if  her  heart  would 
break. 

Of  course,  as  I  could  not  understand 
the  poem,  I  was  very  anxious  to  know  what 
this  tragic  thing  was  that  had  caused 
such  grief,  but  when  Mine  told  me,  I  was 
not  altogether  surprised. 

It  seems  that  early  in  the  winter  this 
girl  had  lost  a  very  dear  grandmother,  who 
had  been  to  her  all  her  life  not  only  grand- 


A  HABD  CONFESSION.  217 

mother,  but  mother  and  friend  as  well.  I 
imagine  that  in  a  somewhat  unhappy  home 
she  was  the  one  person  whom  the  poor  girl 
really  loved  and  who  really  loved  her.  Since 
her  grandmother's  death,  the  child  had 
been  much  worried  by  the  thought  that 
she  had  often  been  cross  and  undutiful,  and 
had  not  repaid  the  care  and  love  that  her 
grandmother  had  lavished  upon  her.  This 
thought  had  troubled  her  so  that  she  re- 
solved to  do  penance  by  confessing  all 
her  shortcomings  to  her  assembled  school- 
mates, and  exhorting  them  to  avoid  her 
errors,  and  to  be  always  kind  and  gentle  to 
their  dear  ones,  as  the  time  might  soon 
come  when  they  could  never  make  amends 
for  a  hasty  word  or  an  undutiful  act. 

This  she  did,  first  writing  out  her  con- 
fession in  the  classical  Chinese  style,  and 
having  it  corrected  by  the  Chinese  teacher, 
and  then  reading  it  to  the  girls,  with  the 
effect  described.  It  seems  to  me  a  most 
uncommon  display  of  force  and  courage  for 
a  girl  of  fifteen. 

I  inclose  a  clipping  from  a  recent  speech 
of  Mr.  Knapp,  the  Unitarian  missionary 
out  here,  in  which  he  states  his  mission  to 
Japan  more  clearly  than  I  have  ever  known 


218  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

him  to  state  it  before.  So  far  as  I  can 
make  out  from  his  speech,  he  is  here  to 
help  the  Japanese  make  a  new  religion 
rather  than  to  preach  anything  as  old- 
fashioned  as  Christianity.  You  can,  how- 
ever, judge  for  yourselves.  Here  are  his 
own  words  :  — 

Sent  as  I  am  to  your  country,  not  as  a  mis- 
sionary but  as  an  ambassador  of  religion,  to  see 
whether  the  liberal  religious  sentiment  of  Amer- 
ica can  be  of  any  help  to  you  in  solving  the 
religious  problem  of  your  future,  I  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  those  who  are  seeking  to  engraft  bod- 
ily upon  your  national  life  a  foreign  religion. 
There  are,  to  be  sure,  many  features  in  that  reli- 
gion which  are  true  and  good,  and  which  may 
be  of  great  help  to  you.  There  are  none  of  the 
great  religions  of  the  world  which  do  not  contain 
a  great  deal  of  truth ;  they  could  not  have  lived 
so  long  and  so  vitally  unless  they  had  been  founded 
upon  truth.  Of  course,  then,  with  your  well- 
known  and  generous  hospitality,  you  are  ever 
ready  to  receive  from  foreign  sources  whatever 
commends  itself  to  you  as  true  and  good  in  the 
world  of  religious  thought.  But  as  Japanese  you 
also  have  a  religious  past,  and  it  is  upon  that, 
whatever  help  you  may  receive  from  foreign 
sources,  —  it  is  upon  that  that  you  will  build  the 
fabric  of  your  future  religion.     And  it  is  not  a 


THE  UNITARIAN  MISSION.  219 

religious  past  of  which  you  need  be  ashamed,  if 
we  are  to  judge  of  it  by  its  fruits.  You  have  in 
it  many  elements  of  solidity  upon  which  you  may 
build.  In  the  refined  sense  of  honor  which  char- 
acterizes your  samurai  class,  in  the  thoughtful- 
ness  and  kindliness  which  you  show  to  each  other, 
in  your  care  for  the  rights  of  the  poor,  and  above 
all  in  your  sentiment  and  practice  of  filial  rever- 
ence, all  of  which  characteristics  are  rooted  in 
your  past,  you  furnish  a  type  of  morality  in  many 
respects  far  superior  to  that  of  the  Western  world, 
and  if  you  build  your  future  religion  upon  that, 
it  will  be  a  religion  of  which  you  need  never  be 
ashamed.  And  if  in  building  up  such  a  religion, 
the  liberal  religious  sentiment  of  America  can 
aid  you,  you  can  rely  upon  its  earnest  and  bro- 
therly help.  For  this  is  the  message  which  I  am 
commissioned  to  bring  to  you,  —  the  message  not 
of  conversion  but  of  affiliation. 

I  wonder  how  much  of  a  church  the 
apostles  would  have  founded  if,  instead  of 
preaching'  against  the  prejudices  and  pref- 
erences of  their  audiences,  they  had  gone 
about  saying,  "We  don't  want  you  to 
change  your  religion,  to  give  up  your  old 
customs,  to  follow  Christ,  but  we  would 
like  you  to  listen  to  what  we  have  to  say, 
and  then  choose  from  your  stock  of  ideas 
those  that  are  best  suited  to  your  national 


220  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

prejudices.     Anything  you  don't  like,  you 
can  leave." 

I  am  afraid  the  Greeks  would  have  been 
even  less  moved  than  they  were,  if  Paul 
had  preached  to  them  that  way  on  Mars' 
Hill ;  and  even  those  who  might  have  fol- 
lowed him  and  added  some  ideas  from  his 
stock  to  their  already  heterogeneous  assort- 
ment would  have  gained  nothing  but  a 
new  philosophy,  with  high  moral  ideas, 
doubtless,  but  with  no  inspiration  or  power 
over  the  life.  All  Japan  to-day  is  picking 
and  choosing,  seeing  and  heariug,some  new 
thing;  aud  a  thing  is  interesting  because 
it  is  new ;  and  when  it  is  a  year  or  two  old 
is  thrown  aside  for  something  newer,  and 
therefore  more  interesting.  What  is  wanted 
is  not  men's  assent  to  new  ideas,  —  there 
is  plenty  of  that  already,  —  but  a  working 
of  those  ideas  into  the  heart  and  life  of 
the  people,  and  an  upbuilding  of  character 
thereby. 

June  22. 

You  probably  know  that  Tokyo  is  a  ter- 
rible place  for  malicious  scandal.  One  of 
the  regular  ways  here  of  attacking  any 
person  or  any  object  that  is  disliked  by  any 
one  for  any  reason   is  by  means  of  scan- 


SCANDAL  IN  TOKYO.  221 

dalous  stories,  made  up  on  a  foundation  of 
truth,  or  cunningly  fitted  in  with  some  well- 
known  facts  that  will  give  it  an  air  of  truth 
to  people  who  accept  and  circulate  evil  re- 
ports without  investigation.  An  example 
of  this  nasty  practice  has  just  come  up  in 
the  shape  of  an  attack  on  one  of  the  finest- 
girls'  schools  in  the  city,  —  an  attack  that 
has  been  so  successful  that  they  say  that 
there  is  not  a  single  application  for  admis- 
sion to  the  school  this  summer  where  there 
were  hundreds  last  year  at  this  time.  The 
school  is  the  Koto  Jo  Gakko,  where  the 
Misses  Prince  teach,  with  whom  I  stayed 
when  I  first  came  to  Tokyo.  The  attack 
began  in  a  low  paper  that  makes  its  living 
by  publishing  lies  of  just  the  kind  that 
were  told  about  the  school  and  its  teachers. 
The  stories  once  started,  other  low  papers 
took  them  up,  and  added  to  them  until 
they  became  big  enough,  and  began  to  look 
enough  like  truth,  for  the  more  respectable 
papers  to  comment  on  them.  Soon  the 
scandal  was  in  the  mouths  of  all  Tokyo. 
When  the  school  gates  were  opened  in  the 
morning,  scurrilous  placards  were  found 
posted  upon  them,  and  as  the  girls  went  to 
school  they  were  insulted   by  school-boys 


222  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

and  students  on  the  street,  and  all  this  be- 
cause of  stories  which  had  no  foundation, 
except  that  one  of  the  teachers  had  once 
delivered  before  the  girls  a  rather  foolish 
and  ill-advised  lecture  on  the  choice  of 
husbands,  in  which  he  had  viewed  mar- 
riage from  the  somewhat  sentimental  stand- 
point of  Europe  and  America,  instead  of 
taking  the  purely  business  view  of  it  com- 
mon in  Japan.  The  teacher  has  been 
turned  off,  and  possibly  the  president  of  the 
school  may  be  also,  as  a  sacrifice  to  the 
public  feeling  that  has  been  aroused  about 
the  matter,  and  to  save  the  school  itself 
from  complete  collapse.  That  this  was  in- 
tended for  an  attack  not  simply  on  the  one 
school,  but  on  female  education  in  general, 
seems  likely  from  the  fact  that  these  same 
low  papers  are  now  busying  themselves 
with  some  of  the  more  important  of  the 
missionary  schools  for  girls,  though  as  yet 
they  have  clone  them  no  harm.  Our  turn 
may  come  next,  but  our  school  is  run  on 
such  conservative  principles  that  there  is 
less  danger. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
June  29  to  July  24. 

School- Building"  Trouble  settled.  — A  Japanese  Baby.  — 
Shopping.  —  Japanese  Taste.  —  Facts  and  Theories.  — 
Calls  from  Drs.  Brooks  and  McVickar.  —  Packing 
in  Wet  Weather.  —  Farewell  Presents.  —  Graduating 
Exercises.  —  Near  View  of  the  Empress.  —  Correcting 
Proof  under  Difficulties. 

Tokyo,  June  29,  1889. 

The  trouble  about  the  school-building  is 
at  last  ended,  and  our  school  is  to  have  its 
own  building'  after  all.  So  now  the  work 
of  moving' is  going  on  merrily,  and  we  hope 
to  have  a  fine  time  on  the  18th,  when  the 
Empress  will  come  and  make  us  a  speech, 
a  thing  she  has  never  done  but  once  before 
in  the  annals  of  the  school. 

I  have  been  much  interested  in  watching 
the  first  few  weeks  of  the  life  of  a  Japan- 
ese baby,  and  think  that  in  many  respects 
babies  here  have  an  easier  time  than  our 
American  infants  at  that  early  age.  In 
the  first  place,  the  Japanese  baby's  dress, 
though  not  so  pretty  as  ours,  is  much  more 


224  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

sensible  in  many  ways.  It  consists,  at  this 
season,  of  a  thin,  loose,  cotton  undergar- 
ment, with  no  buttons  or  pins  anywhere 
about  it,  and  a  flannel  over-garment  made 
exactly  like  a  grown-up  kimono,  but  tied 
about  the  waist  with  a  flannel  belt;  this 
kimono  is  not  only  long  enough  to  cover 
the  feet,  but  the  sleeves  completely  cover 
the  hands  as  well,  keeping  them  from 
scratching  the  face,  and  also  keeping  them 
out  of  the  mouth.  The  poor  little  weak 
thing  does  not  have  to  go  through  the 
complicated  process  of  dressing  which 
causes  our  babies  such  trials  and  shrieks 
every  day,  but  the  whole  costume  can  be 
put  on  in  one  minute,  and  the  baby  never 
worry  a  bit  over  buttons,  sleeves,  pins,  and 
strings,  as  one  loose  string  tied  around  the 
waist  is  all  the  fastening  required.  I  am 
sure  that  if  I  had  a  weakly  baby  to  care  for, 
I  should  put  it  into  Japanese  clothes  for 
the  sake  of  saving  the  daily  physical  fatigue 
and  nervous  strain  of  our  manner  of  dress- 
ing it. 

But  the  dress  is  not  the  only  thing  I  ad- 
mire in  the  manner  of  treating  Japanese 
babies.  Here,  nobody  ever  makes  a  noise 
at  a  baby,  or  jiggles  or  shakes  it,  to  stop 


A  JAPANESE  BABY.  225 

its  crying.  If  it  cries  and  cannot  be 
stopped  by  quiet  and  gentle  means,  it  is 
not  yelled  at  or  trotted,  but  just  goes  on 
crying  until  it  stops  of  its  own  accord, 
which  it  pretty  soon  does.  Though  my 
close  observation  extends  to  only  one  baby, 
I  believe  from  what  I  have  seen  outside 
that  this  is  true  in  regard  to  Japanese  ba- 
bies in  general.  When  they  grow  a  little 
older,  they  are  fully  as  bright  and  active 
and  wide-awake  as  our  children,  so  I  do  not 
think  that  the  quiet  in  which  they  are  kept 
at  first  has  any  effect  except  to  make  them 
less  nervous  and  irritable  than  American 
babies. 

July  8. 

All  good  Americans  celebrated  the 
Fourth  by  going  to  the  American  Minis- 
ter's ball.  I  went  with  the  others  from  a 
sense  of  duty,  but  hardly  find  myself  in  my 
element  when  I  am  in  a  ball-room. 

Mine  and  I  have  spent  a  good  deal  of 
our  time  lately  in  shopping,  and  find  the 
stores  very  attractive  just  now.  This  is 
the  time  of  year  when  presents  are  given 
as  at  New  Year's,  and  consequently  the 
stores  are  as  gay  with  summer  things  as 
they  were  in  December  with  winter  attrac- 


226  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

tions.  There  is  a  great  festival  that  be- 
gins on  the  10th  of  this  month  and  lasts 
for  three  days,  when  all  the  spirits  of  the 
dead  are  supposed  to  come  back  and  walk 
the  earth,  and  on  those  three  days  presents 
are  exchanged.  The  printed  cottons  in 
the  stores  now  are  lovely,  and  I  feel  tempted 
to  spend  all  my  money  in  their  purchase, 
for  they  would  be  extremely  pretty  for  dec- 
orative purposes  at  home,  even  where  the 
patterns  are  too  large  and  queer  for  our 
style  of  dress.  I  cannot  see  exactly  why 
the  Japanese  keep  on  making  the  cheap- 
est things  so  pretty,  for  many  of  them  are 
never  chosen  at  all  for  their  beauty,  but 
simply  considered  for  their  quality.  For 
instance,  there  is  a  kind  of  blue  and  white 
cotton  toweling,  very  coarse,  that  comes  at 
from  one  to  five  cents  a  yard,  that  is  used 
by  all  the  coolies  and  jinrikisha  men,  and 
never  regarded  as  pretty  or  decorative  in 
any  way ;  but  still  it  comes  in  the  loveliest 
designs,  and  when  freed  from  its  associa- 
tions with  coolies  might  be  used  for  almost 
any  purpose  of  house  decoration.  Now 
the  question  that  occurs  to  my  mind  is 
this:  Why  do  the  manufacturers  keep  on 
making  these  towels  in  such  a  beautiful 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  BEAUTY.         227 

variety  of  designs,  when  the  purchasers 
care  not  at  all  whether  the  towels  are 
pretty  or  not  ?  I  have  puzzled  over  this  a 
good  deal,  and  the  only  answer  I  can  find  is 
this :  The  instinct  of  beauty  is  so  strong 
in  the  Japanese  artisan  that  things  come 
from  his  hands  beautiful,  whether  he  makes 
anything  pecuniarily  by  it  or  not.  He  can- 
not help  decorating,  even  when  no  one  no- 
tices or  cares  for  his  work.  It  is  the  same 
way  with  the  earthenware;  everything, 
from  the  coarsest  and  cheapest  up  to  the 
finest  and  most  delicate,  is  decorated  in 
some  way,  and  the  china  stores  which  con- 
tain nothing  but  the  cheapest  earthenware 
used  by  the  commonest  of  the  people  are  one 
blaze  of  beauty  in  color,  form,  and  decora- 
tion. I  cannot  get  at  the  bottom  of  the 
whole  thing,  or  find  out  how  much  this  in- 
stinct of  beauty  is  the  cause,  and  how  much 
the  effect,  of  the  gentleness  and  attractive- 
ness of  the  common  people  here,  but  certain 
it  is,  that  in  this  country  there  is  no  need 
of  the  various  missions  (flower  missions 
and  the  like)  which  have  been  started  in 
England  and  America  to  cultivate  the  aes- 
thetic sense  of  the  poor  in  the  great  cities  ; 
for  here  every  poor  man's  table  service  is 


228  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

dainty  and  delicate  in  the  highest  degree; 
even  the  towel  he  wipes  his  face  on  is 
pretty  enough  for  an  afternoon-tea  cloth ; 
his  clothes  are  graceful,  artistic,  and  com- 
fortable; though  on  a  smaller  scale,  his 
house  is  hardly  more  simple  in  furnish- 
ings, woodwork,  etc.,  than  that  of  the  dai- 
mio  himself,  and  as  he  sits  at  his  work  he 
usually  has  somewThere  about  the  room  a 
vase  of  beautifully  arranged  flowers.  One 
of  our  workmen  would  starve  on  what  sup- 
ports him  and  his  family,  and  yet  the  Jap- 
anese laborer  has  his  aesthetic  nature  fully 
developed,  and  its  gratification  within  his 
reach  at  all  times.  With  him  "  the  life  is 
more  than  meat/'  it  is  beauty  as  well,  and 
this  love  of  beauty  has  upon  him  such  a 
civilizing  effect  that  some  people  are  led 
to  think  that  the  lower  classes  in  Japan 
do  not  need  Christianity.  But  when  one 
comes  to  study  them,  they  are  not  more 
moral  than  our  lower  classes ;  they  are  not 
as  moral;  they  are  only  more  gentle,  more 
contented,  more  civilized  I  should  say,  ex- 
cept that  the  word  "  civilization "  is  so 
difficult  to  define  and  to  understand,  that  I 
do  not  know  what  it  means  now  as  well  as 
I  did  when  I  left  home. 


FACTS  AND   THEORIES.  229 

But  this  rambling1  disquisition  on  the 
lower  classes  of  Japan  grew  out  of  my  re- 
searches among  the  blue  towels,  and  may 
not  be  as  interesting  to  you  to  read  as 
it  has  been  to  me  to  write,  for  I  have  just 
been  clarifying  my  own  thoughts  by  writ- 
ing them  down,  and  you  will  get,  not  the 
finished  thought,  but  simply  the  boiling 
over  of  the  kettle  in  the  process  of  cook- 
ing. I  suppose  that  is  really  all  that  let- 
ters can  be,  and  I  am  painfully  conscious 
that  my  letters  have  had  very  much  of  that 
character  on  account  of  my  habit  of  gener- 
alizing from  a  few  facts.  Please  do  not 
believe  all  my  theories,  though  I  think  you 
can  trust  my  facts,  for  I  have  never  writ- 
ten you  anything  of  that  kind  that  I  did 
not  know  either  at  first  hand  or  on  good 
authority.  My  theories  are,  I  believe,  dis- 
tinctly labeled  as  theories. 

July  17. 

My  days  this  week  have  been  enlivened 
by  calls  from  Dr.  Phillips  Brooks  and  Dr. 
McVickar,  who  are  over  here  for  the 
summer,  and  brought  me  a  letter  of  in- 
troduction. At  their  first  call  they  stayed 
only  a  few  minutes,  so  few  that  I  had  not 


230  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOR. 

time  to  collect  my  wits  and  think  of  any- 
thing interesting  to  invite  them  to,  for  it 
took  me  a  good  part  of  their  call  to  get 
over  the  fear  lest  they  should  bump  their 
heads  against  the  ceiling.  After  living 
for  a  year  among  Japanese,  all  foreign 
men  seem  enormous  to  me,  so  you  may 
imagine  the  effect  of  those  two  particu- 
larly large  men  in  my  little  parlor  with 
its  low  doorway.  After  they  were  gone  I 
thought  of  Mito  Yashiki,  and  obtained  per- 
mission from  the  War  Department  to  in- 
vite them  to  go  there,  sending  a  note  to 
their  lodgings  the  next  morning.  Unfor- 
tunately, they  were  out,  and  I  received  no 
answer  from  them  all  day.  At  last,  in  the 
evening,  as  Mine  and  I  were  sitting  in  my 
parlor,  both  in  Japanese  dress,  —  for  I 
often  wear  it  these  warm  evenings,  it  is  so 
comfortable  and  restful,  —  we  were  startled 
by  a  cry  of  "  0  Kyaku  Sama  "  ("  Honora- 
ble guests  ")  from  O  Kaio  as  she  hurried  to 
open  the  front  door,  and  there  were  the  two 
reverend  gentlemen,  come  to  bring  their 
answer  in  person.  In  this  part  of  the 
world  an  evening  call  is  most  unusual,  so 
that  it  was  a  pleasant  and  American  ex- 
citement to  have  them  walk  in  on  us  just 


ACQUAINTANCES  IN  TOKYO.        231 

as  if  we  were  all  in  America.  They  could 
not  go  with  us  to  the  Mito  gardens,  as  they 
had  already  filled  their  time  in  the  city  with 
engagements,  but  their  visit  was  delight- 
ful, for  they  are  the  first  foreigners  I  have 
met  since  I  came  to  Tokyo  whom  I  associ- 
ate in  any  way  with  my  American  life  and 
belongings.  It  is  rather  a  curious  expe- 
rience for  me  out  here,  that  in  my  associ- 
ations with  those  about  me  I  am  "  neither 
fish,  flesh,  fowl,  nor  good  red  herring.55  I 
am  too  Japanese  for  the  foreigners,  and  too 
foreign  for  the  Japanese,  too  worldly  for 
the  missionaries,  and  not  worldly  enough 
for  the  rest  of  the  foreign  colony ;  and  so, 
with  the  exception  of  my  intimate  Japan- 
ese friends,  there  is  no  one  in  Tokyo  who 
does  not  seem  to  regard  me  as  rather  out 
of  their  line.  In  many  ways  I  have  found 
Mr.  Knapp  among  the  most  congenial  of 
my  American  acquaintances,  although  my 
ideas  differ  widely  from  his  on  many  sub- 
jects. 

July  21. 

The  weather  here  in  Japan  is  an  im- 
portant factor  in  one5s  packing,  particularly 
when  the  things  are  to  be  stored  all  sum- 
mer in  this  damp  climate.     If  the  day  is 


232  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

rainy  everything  is  damp,  and  if  the  things 
are  packed  away  damp  they  mould  and 
spot,  so  in  packing  one  must  have  sunshiny 
weather  to  do  it  successfully.  As  yester- 
day was  not  bright  enough  for  me  to  do 
much,  and  to-day  it  is  pouring,  I  am  likely 
to  get  into  quite  a  hurry  when  it  finally 
clears,  as  I  hope  it  will  soon. 

The  children  forming  one  of  my  classes 
at  school  have  just  been  in  to  bid  me  good- 
by  and  bring  me  some  farewell  presents. 
They  are  two  dolls,  representations  of  the 
Emperor  and  Empress,  such  as  are  used  at 
the  feast  of  dolls,  and  various  doll  furnish- 
ings, musical  instruments,  ceremonial  tea- 
set,  bureau,  lunch-boxes,  etc.  A  few  days 
ago,  another  class  gave  me  a  beautiful  doll 
dressed  in  the  full  costume  of  a  little  girl 
of  twelve.  The  girls  had  heard  me  say 
that  I  was  very  much  interested  in  Japan- 
ese toys,  and  had  tried  to  find  me  pretty 
ones  to  take  home  with  me. 

Our  graduating  exercises  took  place  on 
Thursday,  and  my  special  part  of  the  per- 
formance, an  English  speech  by  one  of  the 
graduating  class,  was  regarded  as  quite 
a  credit  to  the  English  department.  We 
were  summoned  to  school  at  eight  o'clock, 


PBESENTATION  TO   THE  EMPRESS.    233 

but  as  the  Empress  did  not  leave  the  pal- 
ace until  nine,  we  had  some  time  to  wait 
before  anything  could  begin.  At  last  we 
were  all  sent  out  into  the  front  yard  and 
arranged  in  line,  and  we  were  hardly  set- 
tled in  our  places  when  the  imperial  car- 
riage drove  up,  and  over  we  all  went  in  our 
deepest  bow  until  her  Majesty  was  safely 
in  the  house.  Then  we  wrent  in,  and  word 
was  sent  that  the  Empress  would  receive 
the  teachers  at  once,  so  we  hurried  up- 
stairs and  stood  in  line  outside  the  door  in 
the  order  of  our  rank,  until  our  turns  came 
to  go  in,  make  our  three  bows,  and  back 
out  again.  I  had  hoped  to  do  better  with 
my  bows  than  the  first  time  I  was  pre- 
sented, but  as  I  did  not  know  whereabouts 
in  the  room  the  Empress  was  sitting,  and 
as  it  would  not  have  been  polite  for  me 
to  look  for  myself  like  a  reasonable  being, 
I  found  myself  bowing  gravely  to  the  wall, 
and  should  have  continued  to  waste  my  rev- 
erence upon  that  unresponsive  object,  had 
I  not  been  rescued  from  my  absurd  position 
by  one  of  her  Majesty's  chamberlains,  who 
waved  me  about  until  I  faced  in  the  right 
direction.  When  this  ordeal  was  over,  we 
wrent  into  the  assembly-room,  and  after  the 


234  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

audience  was  seated  word  was  sent  to  the 
Empress,  and  she  came  out  from  her  private 
room.  As  she  reached  the  door,  a  chord 
was  struck  on  the  piano,  and  we  all  rose ;  a 
second  chord,  and  we  bowed  and  remained 
with  heads  down  until  the  Empress  had 
walked  the  whole  length  of  the  room, 
mounted  the  platform,  and  spoken  the  few 
words  by  which  she  formally  opened  the 
new  building.  Then  she  took  her  seat  in 
the  great  black  and  gold  lacquered  chair 
that  stood  on  the  dais,  the  piano  sounded 
again,  and  we  raised  our  heads  once  more 
and  took  our  seats.  After  this  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  school  came  forward,  and  with 
many  bows  and  much  sucking  in  of  the 
breath  made  a  speech,  in  which  he  thanked 
the  Empress  in  behalf  of  the  school  and 
its  officers.  Another  of  the  school's  officers 
followed  him  with  a  longer  speech,  the  drift 
of  which  I  have  not  yet  discovered.  Then 
came  the  giving  of  the  diplomas,  which 
were  not  at  all  like  the  sheepskins  of 
our  native  land,  but  dainty  little  Japanese 
scrolls  on  rollers,  with  brown  and  gold 
brocade  mountings.  Each  girl  of  the  grad- 
uating class  received  hers  in  person  from 
the  President,  and  had  to  rise  in  her  place, 


CLOSING  EXERCISES.  235 

walk  out  directly  in  front  of  the  Empress 
and  bow  to  her,  go  to  the  President  and 
bow  to  him,  receive  her  roll  and  bow  again, 
then  go  sideways  until  she  was  in  front  of 
the  Empress  again,  bow  once  more,  and 
back  down  to  her  seat.  All  this  bowing 
had  been  carefully  practiced  beforehand, 
so  the  girls  did  it  very  well  and  made 
no  mistakes.  In  the  Japanese  schools, 
every  pupil  promoted  into  a  higher  class 
receives  a  certificate  to  that  effect,  and 
these  are  all  given  by  the  President  at  the 
closing  exercises.  The  classes  did  not  go 
up  to  receive  these  certificates,  but  the 
head  girl  of  each  class  took  them  from  the 
President  for  the  whole  class.  As  there 
are  twelve  classes  in  the  school,  and  each  of 
the  twelve  head  girls  was  obliged  to  make 
four  bows,  even  this  labor-saving  arrange- 
ment involved  a  good  deal  of  bowing  be- 
fore all  were  through.  After  the  diplomas 
and  certificates  had  all  been  given,  the 
members  of  the  graduating  class  made 
their  little  speeches,  two  in  Japanese,  one 
in  French,  and  one  in  English.  From 
my  point  of  view  the  English  was,  of 
course,  the  most  intelligible,  and  therefore 
the  most  interesting.      Then  there  were 


236  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

more  speeches  and  a  distribution  of  prizes, 
which  involved  additional  bowing,  so  that 
by  the  time  the  exercises  were  over  my 
back  fairly  ached  from  sympathy.  These 
exercises  were  interspersed  with  music,  — 
singing  by  the  school  and  piano-playing  by 
the  girls.  The  Court  band  was  stationed 
out  of  doors  under  the  window,  and  played 
when  the  Empress  came  in  and  when  she 
went  out,  as  well  as  while  the  diplomas 
were  being  given.  The  first  song  sung 
was  the  one  written  for  the  school  by  the 
Empress  herself.  While  this  was  being 
sung,  the  audience  stood  with  bowed  heads 
as  if  in  prayer. 

I  had  a  better  opportunity  to  see  the 
Empress  than  I  have  ever  had  before,  as 
she  sat  within  a  short  distance  of  me  for 
two  hours  or  more.  She  was  dressed  en- 
tirely in  white,  and  looked  very  well,  her 
white  bonnet  setting  off  to  advantage  her 
jet  black  hair.  Her  face  is  long  and  thin, 
her  forehead  high,  and  her  head  finely 
formed.  Her  expression  is  sad,  and  she 
looks  as  if  these  pomps  and  ceremonies 
were  rather  a  bore  to  her.  She  seemed  to 
take  great  interest  in  all  the  performances 
of  the  pupils,  whether  musical  or  literary ; 


AN  IMPERIAL  LUNCH.  237 

more,  I  thought,  than  in  the  speeches 
of  the  heads  of  the  school.  Somehow  I 
always  feel  sorry  for  her,  and  I  think  she 
would  be  sorry  for  herself,  if  she  knew 
how  much  more  fun  it  is  to  be  a  Yankee 
school-ma'am  than  an  empress. 

After  the  exercises  were  over,  the  Em- 
press went  out,  accompanied  by  the  obei- 
sances of  the  audience,  and  we  hurried 
out  to  the  front  door,  reaching1  there  just 
in  time  to  bow  to  her  as  she  got  into  her 
carriage.  Then  there  was  a  lull  in  the 
progress  of  affairs  while  the  guests  looked 
over  the  building.  At  last  lunch  was  an- 
nounced, and  we  went  upstairs  to  one  of 
the  large  recitation-rooms,  in  which  a  fine 
foreign  lunch  sent  from  the  court  was  served 
on  the  Imperial  Household's  own  private 
dishes.  It  was  a  very  good  lunch,  and  the 
dishes  were  so  pretty  that  it  was  a  pleasure 
to  eat  from  them.  There  was  a  certain 
feeling  of  grandeur,  too,  in  using  knives 
and  plates  decorated  with  the  Emperor's 
own  private  crest, — not  the  chrysanthe- 
mum which  stands  for  the  government,  but 
the  blossoms  and  leaves  of  the  kiri-tree, 
(paullownia  imperialis),  which  is  the  sign 
of  the  imperial  family,  and  is  put  on  the 
Emperor's  private  property. 


238  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

Ail  unpleasant  sequel  to  our  graduating 
exercises  was  that  this  morning  I  was 
aroused  from  a  sound  sleep  at  half  past 
five  to  correct  the  proof  of  the  English 
speech,  which  was  to  be  printed  with  the 
other  speeches.  I  did  as  well  as  I  could 
with  my  eyes  half  open,  and  in  the  dazed 
condition  of  one  suddenly  awakened,  but 
the  proof  came  back  again  this  noon,  with 
word  that  the  printing-office  did  not  un- 
derstand my  corrections.  Upon  investiga- 
tion I  found  that  no  one  in  the  office  knew 
a  word  of  English,  or  the  signs  used  in 
proof- correcting.  So  Mine  and  I  went 
over  the  whole  thing  again,  then  Mine 
explained  the  corrections  in  Japanese  to 
the  messenger,  who  went  on  his  way  re- 
joicing. 

Wednesday,  July  24. 

I  sail  for  Kioto  on  Friday,  and  feel  that 
my  Tokyo  life  is  ended,  for  my  house  will 
be  closed,  my  things  packed  away,  and  I  a 
wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  country  until 
I  sail  for  America  in  September. 


CHAPTER   XV. 
Hiy^i  Zan,  July  31,  to  Numadzu,  August  28. 

View  from  Hiye*i  Zan.  —  The  Mission  Camp.  —  Last 
Days  in  Tokyo.  —  Voyage  to  Kobe\  —  From  Kobe* 
to  Hiyel.  —  Historical  Interest  of  Hiy&.  —  Pleasant 
Weather  and  Walks.  —  A  Young  Buddhist.  —  Some 
Effects  of  the  Summer  Camp.  —  Benkei's  Relics.  — 
The  "  Hiy£i  Zan  Hornet."  —  Shopping  in  Kioto.  —  The 
River  at  Night.  —  Illumination  of  the  Mountains.  — 
A  Snake  Story.  —  Traveling  in  Japanese  Style.  — 
Start  in  a  Typhoon.  —  Nagoya.  —  A  Wayside  Inn. 
—  Okazaki.  —  Weak  Kurumayas.  —  An  Unpleasant 
Hotel.  —  Okitsu.  —  End  of  the  Journey.  —  Nu- 
madzu.  —  Children's  Visits.  —  Slow  Freight.  —  Plans 
for  Home. 

Hiyei  Zan,  July  31,  1889. 

Here  I  am  at  last,  up  on  the  mountain, 
in  the  missionary  camp.  As  I  sit  in  my 
tent,  I  see  below  me  a  deep  valley,  or  rather 
ravine,  and  beyond  it  tier  above  tier  of 
mountains,  their  sides  flecked  here  and 
there  with  bits  of  floating  mist.  One  mo- 
ment the  mist  drives  in  and  fills  up  the 
valley,  and  we  seem  to  have  pitched  our 
tents  on  the  edge  of  limitless  space,  then 


240  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

suddenly  the  cloud  rolls  away,  and  we  are 
once  more  a  part  of  a  mountainous  world. 

I  find  that  I  enjoy  very  much  being  once 
more  with  people  of  my  own  race  and  lan- 
guage, having  some  one  with  whom  I  can 
talk  over  the  things  in  which  I  am  inter- 
ested, and  living  in  an  atmosphere  so  wholly 
pure  and  Christian  as  that  in  which  I  now 
find  myself.  These  people  with  whom  I  am 
are  doing  a  remarkable  work,  with  great 
wisdom  and  a  spirit  of  entire  consecration 
to  the  service  on  which  they  have  entered. 
I  am  sure  that  the  weeks  I  spend  here  will 
be  some  of  the  most  interesting  and  in- 
structive that  I  have  spent  in  Japan,  and  I 
shall  always  be  glad  that  I  have  had  this 
opportunity  to  obtain  an  insight  into  the 
lives  and  work  of  our  missionaries  to  this 
country.  The  annual  mission  meeting  is 
going  on  this  week,  and  by  special  invita- 
tion I  am  privileged  to  attend  it.  It  does 
one's  soul  good  to  see  the  company  of  ear- 
nest, cultivated  men  and  women  who  meet 
together  every  day  to  discuss  the  plan  of 
campaign  for  the  coming  year,  and  yet  the 
number  seems  absurdlv  small  for  the  work 
that  they  have  done,  and  even  more  inade- 
quate for  the  work  that  they  are  planning 


AMONG  THE  MISSIONARIES,        241 

to  do  and  that  is  fairly  crying  out  to  be 
done.  The  great  problem  is  in  regard  to 
workers,  and  much  has  to  be  left  undone 
because  there  are  not  missionaries  enough 
now  to  man  the  old  fields,  or  to  open  up 
new  ones. 

I  shall  probably  write  more  of  the  mis- 
sionaries and  their  work  later,  so  now  I  will 
go  back  to  Tokyo,  and  tell  you  something 
about  my  departure  thence.  The  rain  of 
which  I  complained  in  my  last  letter  kept 
on,  until  at  last  I  had  to  pack  away  all 
my  household  goods  with  the  dampness  in 
them,  and  I  confidently  expect  to  find  every- 
thing spoiled  that  can  spoil,  when  I  open 
my  boxes  next  autumn. 

I  left  Tokyo  last  Friday,  attended  by  my 
maid,  who  has  thus  far  proved  herself  a 
very  desirable  traveling  companion.  The 
steamer  by  which  I  went  from  Yokohama 
to  Kobe  was  one  of  the  old  ones,  quite 
different  from  the  delightful  Omi  Maru, 
by  which  I  made  the  same  trip  last  year, 
though  belonging  to  the  same  company. 
The  cabins  were  full  of  fleas,  and  the  deck 
was  loaded  with  horses.  I  was  the  only 
first  cabin  passenger,  and  took  my  meals 
with  the  officers  of  the  ship.      The  bul- 


242  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

warks  were  so  high  that  one  could  see  no- 
thing while  sitting  on  the  deck,  and  an 
awning  which  shut  out  the  glare  of  sun- 
shine also  shut  off  whatever  breeze  the 
bulwarks  did  not  intercept.  However,  my 
voyage  of  twenty-eight  hours  was  pleas- 
anter  than  I  at  first  expected  it  would  be, 
for  the  captain  invited  me  to  sit  on  the 
bridge,  and  from  there  one  was  able  to  see 
all  there  was  to  be  seen,  and  catch  all  the 
breeze  that  could  be  found. 

I  reached  Kobe  at  about  half  past  four 
on  Saturday  afternoon,  hoping  to  go  on  to 
Kioto  and  up  the  mountain  that  night,  but 
found  that  the  trip  was  more  of  an  under- 
taking than  I  had  anticipated,  so  decided 
to  spend  Sunday  in  Kob6  with  friends. 
My  woman  went  on  to  Kioto  that  night, 
and  met  me  on  Monday  at  the  station  with 
kurumas.  The  ride  out  to  the  mountain 
from  Kioto  was  a  very  rough  one,  over  a 
road  much  washed  by  recent  rains.  Just 
as  I  was  reaching  the  end  of  that  stage  in 
my  journey,  the  wheel  came  off  of  my  ku- 
ruma,  nearly  pitching  me  out  upon  a  pic- 
turesque black  buffalo  loaded  with  fagots, 
that  was  passing.  Fortunately,  this  acci- 
dent  happened    so   near   the   end   of  the 


A  BUDDHIST  STRONGHOLD.        243 

kuruma  road  that  it  did  not  delay  us  at  all. 
At  Yase,  where  the  road  ends,  we  took  kago 
for  the  lift  up  the  mountain,  reaching  the 
camp  a  little  after  noon. 

Since  I  have  been  here  I  have  done  no- 
thing but  attend  meetings,  and  see  my 
friends,  and  enjoy  to  the  utmost  the  beau- 
tiful views  that  lie  spread  out  before  us  all 
the  time.  I  mean  pretty  soon  to  take 
some  wTalks  and  explore  the  mountain, 
which  is  very  interesting  historically,  as  it 
was  formerly  covered  with  flourishing  Bud- 
dhist monasteries.  The  monks,  however, 
were  so  warlike  and  truculent  that  Hideyo- 
shi  was  finally  obliged  to  drive  them  out,  to 
establish  his  power  in  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try. The  monasteries  were  burned  to  the 
ground  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the 
mountain  left  a  wilderness.  There  are  now, 
however,  many  monasteries  and  temples 
upon  it,  built  since  the  time  of  Hideyoshi 
upon  the  old  sites,  so  that  Christian  mis- 
sionary and  Buddhist  monk  now  dwell  side 
by  side  upon  this  ancient  stronghold  of  the 
Buddhist  faith. 


244  A  JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

August  6. 

The  weather  has  been  delightful  ever 
since  I  came,  and  on  days  when  it  is  too 
hot  for  comfort  we  have  only  to  think  of 
how  much  hotter  it  is  down  below  us,  to  be 
perfectly  satisfied  with  our  situation.  It 
is  always  cool  enough  for  a  pleasant  walk 
after  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  the 
walks  here  are  charming,  —  shaded  wood- 
paths  which  formerly  led  to  great  temples 
or  monasteries,  but  which  now,  after  wind- 
ing about  the  mountain  sides,  bring  us 
sometimes  to  a  ruined  or  decaying  temple, 
but  more  often  to  an  empty  terrace  where 
a  temple  has  once  been,  of  which  no  trace 
now  remains,  except  the  terrace  itself,  the 
stone  walls  that  border  the  path,  and  per- 
haps a  few  overturned  stone  Buddhas,  lan- 
terns, or  moss-grown  gravestones.  Some 
few  of  the  temples  are  still  kept  up,  but  they 
have  a  forlorn  and  deserted  air,  and  the 
priests  look  lonesome  and  despondent. 

The  other  day,  when  we  were  at  mission 
meeting  in  the  big  assembly  tent,  I  noticed 
a  young  priest  standing  outside  and  look- 
ing wistfully  in.  He  made  quite  a  picture 
in  his  gauzy  black  robes  against  the  back- 
ground  of  green   trees   and   distant  blue 


MISSION  WOBK.  245 

mountains,  and  when  he  turned  away  and 
went  disconsolately  down  the  mountain 
side,  I  felt  sorry  for  him  and  his  decaying 
places  of  worship.  That  evening  I  learned 
that  the  young  priest  had  come  down  to 
see  one  of  the  missionaries,  to  tell  him 
that  he  had  decided  to  leave  the  priesthood, 
and  wauted  to  learn  about  Christianity. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  summer  life  of 
these  missionaries  all  together  on  this 
mountain  side,  where  they  can  talk  over 
their  work,  compare  notes,  and  exchange 
experiences,  and  where  they  learn  to  know 
and  understand  each  other  thoroughly,  is 
one  source  of  the  success  that  they  meet. 
Here  they  are  like  one  great  family,  and 
when  they  go  back  to  their  widely  sepa- 
rated posts,  the  warm  feeling  of  brother- 
hood that  exists  between  them  strengthens 
them  individually,  and  gives  them  collec- 
tively a  unity  of  purpose  that  adds  im- 
mensely to  the  force  of  the  mission  as  a 
whole. 

This  mountain,  beside  being  noted  as  a 
former  Buddhist  stronghold,  is  famed  as  a 
favorite  resort  of  the  hero  Benkei,  the  Jap- 
anese Samson,  and  the  scene  of  some  of 
his  exploits.     They  show  two  little  temples 


246  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

not  far  from  our  camp,  joined  together  by 
a  veranda,  so  as  to  suggest  the  Japanese 
yoke,  which  it  is  said  that  Benkei  saved  in 
time  of  danger  by  carrying  off  on  his  shoul- 
ders and  afterward  bringing  back  to  their 
place.  There  is  a  well  here  named  for  the 
hero,  and  to  the  top  of  this  mountain  he 
dragged  the  great  bell  of  Miidera  that  I 
saw  last  summer.  It  was  from  this  moun- 
tain's top,  too,  that  he  sent  the  same  bell 
crashing  down  through  the  trees  until  it 
rolled,  cracked  and  scratched,  into  the 
grounds  of  the  monastery  that  lies  at  the 
eastern  base  of  the  mountain.  So  you  see 
we  have  not  only  history,  but  legend  con- 
nected with  this  place,  and  the  old  stories, 
joined  with  the  new  work  that  goes  out 
from  here  year  after  year  into  all  southern 
and  eastern  Japan,  give  the  mountain  an 
extraordinary  interest,  to  my  mind. 

Kioto,  August  18. 

I  am  spending  Sunday  here  with  some 
missionary  friends,  preparatory  to  my 
plunge  into  pure  Japan,  with  no  foreign 
food  and  no  interpreter.  I  came  down  the 
mountain  early  Friday  morning,  and  felt 
as  if  I  were  leaving  a  home  when  I  came 


THE  HIYEI  ZAN  HORNET.  247 

away  from  all  the  pleasant  and  friendly 
people  there.  On  Thursday  evening,  the 
amusement  committee  of  the  camp  pub- 
lished a  paper,  of  which  I  was  made  the 
editor,  because  I  seemed  to  be  about  the 
only  person  on  the  mountain  who  was  not 
spending  the  vacation  in  the  study  of  the 
language,  or  some  other  work  of  prepara- 
tion for  the  coming  year.  The  paper  came 
out  better  than  I  had  expected  it  would, 
for  the  different  members  of  the  mission 
sent  in  a  great  many  short  items,  adver- 
tisements, jokes,  etc.,  and  one  or  two  vis- 
itors to  the  camp  who  were  really  taking 
vacation  helped  out  with  longer  articles, 
until  we  had  nearly  enough  material  for 
a  "  Sunday  Herald,"  or  some  other  mon- 
strosity in  journalism.  The  whole  mission 
seemed  in  a  mood  to  be  amused,  and  laughed 
uproariously  at  the  mildest  jokes,  so  the 
"  Hiyei  Zan  Hornet  "  proved  itself  quite  a 
success. 

Since  my  arrival  in  Kioto  I  have  been 
devoting  myself  to  shopping,  and  as  I  know 
that  I  am  taking  my  last  look  at  Japanese 
shops  for  some  time  anyway,  I  find  the 
temptation  to  buy  everything  I  see  almost 
irresistible.      I   never   come  back  from  a 


248  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

shopping  excursion  with  more  than  enough 
money  to  pay  my  jinrikisha  man. 

Last  night,  I  went  with  one  of  my  friends 
for  an  evening  kuruma  ride  down  to  the 
river,  which  is  one  of  the  sights  of  Kioto 
at  this  season.  The  whole  surface  of  the 
stream  was  covered  with  floating  tea-houses, 
brilliantly  lighted,  and  each  tea-house  was 
filled  with  patrons,  either  eating  and  drink- 
ing or  playing  some  game,  —  a  jolly  com- 
pany, wide-awake,  and  trying  to  cool  off 
after  the  drowsy  heat  of  these  August 
afternoons.  The  space  between  the  two 
bridges  in  the  centre  of  the  city  was  entirely 
filled  with  boats,  and  from  either  bridge 
or  bank  the  sight  was  very  gay.  Fireworks 
set  off  at  intervals  from  one  of  the  larger 
tea-houses  on  the  shore  gave  an  addi- 
tional charm  to  the  scene.  From  there 
we  went  to  the  street  on  which  are  all  the 
theatres  of  the  city.  The  whole  street  was 
crowded  with  people,  and  looked  like  a  big 
matsuri ;  for  beside  the  theatres  with  their 
great  painted  play-bills,  there  were  smaller 
shows  and  booths  and  shops  innumerable, 
with  all  sorts  of  attractive  wares  most 
temptingly  displayed.  I  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution of  leaving  my  money  at  home,  or  I 


AN  ILLUMINATION.  249 

should  certainly  have  spent  all  that  I  had 
left  from  my  morning's  shopping  in  buy- 
ing some  of  the  pretty  things  that  met  the 
eye  at  every  step. 

I  found  that  I  had  come  down  from 
Hiyei  Zan  at  just  the  right  time  to  see 
the  annual  illumination  of  the  mountains 
that  surround  Tokyo.  This  can  be  seen 
better  from  the  part  of  the  city  where  I  am 
staying  than  from  any  other  point.  The 
custom  was  established  many  years  ago  by 
the  Emperor,  partly  for  his  own  pleasure, 
and  partly,  I  am  told,  for  the  sake  of 
killing  or  driving  off  snakes  and  other  nox- 
ious vermin  from  the  mountains. 

The  illuminations  are  produced  by  great 
bonfires  on  the  mountain  sides,  arranged 
so  as  to  form  colossal  Chinese  characters, 
and  the  effect  is  wonderful,  when  on  every 
mountain  in  the  circle  a  letter  of  fire  blazes 
out  clear  and  distinct  through  the  dark- 
ness, burns  for  an  hour  or  more,  and  then 
dies  away.  Though  the  Emperor  has  moved 
away  from  Kioto,  and  the  bonfires  are  no 
longer  a  salute  to  his  Majesty,  the  snakes, 
foxes,  monkeys,  etc.,  still  live  in  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  custom  of  scaring  them  off 
by  these  annual  fires  has  not  yet  been  aban- 
doned. 


250  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

Speaking  of  snakes  reminds  me  of  an 
incident  of  our  return  from  a  picnic  the 
other  day.  When  we  go  on  picnics  on  the 
mountain,  we  usually  engage  half  as  many 
kagos  as  there  are  people  in  the  party,  so 
that  each  person  can  ride  half  the  way 
and  walk  half,  for  the  American  anatomy 
cannot  endure  for  any  great  length  of  time 
the  cramped  position  necessary  in  a  kago. 
It  was  my  turn  to  walk,  and  I  was  walking 
just  behind  a  kago,  when  the  man  in  front 
of  me  cried  out,  "  Mamushi !  "  and  began 
striking  with  his  stick  at  something  in 
the  little  brook  that  ran  beside  the  path. 
It  proved  to  be  a  snake,  one  of  the  few 
poisonous  reptiles  of  Japan.  When  he 
had  killed  it,  he  poked  it  out  of  the  water 
with  his  stick,  and  after  taking  the  pre- 
caution to  crush  its  head  to  a  jelly  against 
a  stone,  he  took  it  up  in  his  fingers, 
opened  its  mouth,  and  by  a  dexterous  mo- 
tion managed  to  pull  off  its  skin  and  take 
out  its  insides  all  at  once,  leaving  nothing 
at  all  of  the  snake  but  its  white  flesh,  as 
clean  and  nice  looking  as  a  fish  ready  to 
be  broiled.  He  then  took  the  flesh,  ran 
a  stick  through  it,  and  stuck  it  up  on  the 
top   of  the  kago.     I  was   devoured   with 


A  SNAKE  STOBY.  251 

curiosity  to  know  what  he  was  going  to 
do  with  the  thing,  and  at  last  screwed  up 
the  courage  to  ask  him.  He  said  that  he 
was  going  to  use  it  for  medicine,  —  that 
it  made  very  good  medicine.  When  I 
reached  home  I  asked  0  Kaio  about  it, 
and  she  said  yes,  that  the  mamushi  was 
good  for  colds.  That  it  must  be  cut  up 
very  fine  and  mixed  with  sugar,  and  that 
it  made  a  powerful  medicine.  She  said  that 
once  her  father  was  sick  and  went  to  see  a 
doctor,  who  gave  him  a  mamushi,  and  told 
him  that  if  he  took  that  all  in  a  week  he 
would  get  well.  The  patient  thought  that 
if  the  mamushi  taken  in  a  week  would 
make  him  well,  taken  in  two  days  it  would 
make  him  better,  so  he  took  it  all  in  two 
days.  But  the  medicine  was  too  powerful 
and  affected  his  hearing,  so  that  he  be- 
came almost  deaf.  Then  he  was  fright- 
ened and  sent  for  the  doctor,  and  the  doc- 
tor told  him  that  it  was  because  he  had 
taken  the  medicine  too  fast.  Apparently, 
the  mamushi  is  in  its  effects  a  good  deal 
like  quinine. 

Okitsu,  August  22. 

I  have  been  on  my  travels  ever  since  I 
last  wrote,  and  am  still  on  my  way  to  Nu- 


252  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

madzu,  but  now  expect  to  reach  that  place 
to-morrow  morning*.  I  am  having  a  de- 
lightful time,  and  my  supply  of  Japanese 
has  answered  every  requirement  thus  far. 
Since  Monday  morning,  —  and  it  is  now 
Thursday  evening, —  I  have  not  seen  a  liv- 
ing being  who  understands  English  except 
Bruce,  and  though  I  cannot  say  that  I 
speak  like  a  native  yet,  I  have  gained  con- 
fidence and  readiness  in  the  use  of  the  lan- 
guage, so  that  I  am  quite  convinced  that 
if  I  stayed  here  and  did  this  sort  of  thing 
a  little  more,  I  should  learn  the  language 
much  faster  than  I  have  done.  I  have 
found  out  one  thing  too,  which  I  have  for 
some  time  suspected,  but  which  I  never 
have  put  to  the  proof  before,  and  that  is 
that  I  can  live  pretty  well  on  Japanese 
food,  and  that  at  first-class  Japanese  hotels, 
with  a  good  maid  to  look  after  me,  I  can 
be  much  more  comfortable  than  when  trav- 
eling, as  I  did  last  summer,  with  a  man 
cook,  foreign  supplies,  and  a  whole  cooking 
outfit.  0  Kaio  has  proved  herself  perfect 
as  a  traveling  companion,  and  I  am  alto- 
gether delighted  with  my  expedition.    • 

And  now,  to  go  from  glittering  gener- 
alities to  particulars,  I  must  confess  that  it 


A  START  IN  A  TYPHOON.  253 

was  with  some  dread  that  I  bade  farewell 
to  my  friends  at  the  Kioto  railway  station 
on  Monday  morning,  for  it  was  in  the  midst 
of  a  typhoon  that  had  blown  our  umbrellas 
inside  out,  and  drenched  us  to  the  skin. 
I  had  almost  made  up  my  mind  to  buy 
my  ticket  through  to  Numadzu,  and  give 
up  my  projected  kuruma  ride  along  the 
Tokaido.  But  my  desire  to  see  how  Jap- 
anese I  could  be  was  not  quite  drowned  out 
or  blown  away  by  >  the  typhoon,  and  the 
thought  that  I  had  written  home  what  I 
had  intended  to  do,  and  that  my  friends 
would  consider  me  weak-minded  if  I  gave 
it  up,  helped  me  to  cling  to  my  first  pur- 
pose and  buy  my  ticket  only  to  Nagoya, 
intending  to  leave  there  in  the  afternoon 
for  my  long  kuruma  ride  to  Numadzu.  But 
on  the  way  to  Nagoya  the  typhoon  became 
so  violent  that  it  nearly  blew  the  train 
off  the  track,  and  when  we  reached  the 
hotel  and  found  it  quiet  and  comfortable,  I 
at  once  decided  to  spend  the  night  there 
and  wait  for  better  weather.  At  Nagoya 
there  is  a  fine  old  castle,  with  two  enor- 
mous gold  carp  on  the  top  of  it  as  orna- 
ments, so  I  sent  my  maid  to  the  city  office 
with  my  passport  and  a  card,  asking  for 


254  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

permission  to  visit  the  castle  either  that 
afternoon  or  the  next  morning.  They 
sent  me  a  permit  for  the  next  day,  so  I 
spent  the  afternoon  in  reading*  and  rest- 
ing and  making  arrangements  for  kuru- 
mas.  Tuesday,  however,  proved  no  better 
than  Monday  had  been.  The  typhoon  was 
still  raging,  but  I  had  no  more  time  to 
spend  in  waiting  for  pleasant  weather,  so 
started  out.  First  I  visited  the  castle, 
and  was  soaked  to  the  skin  in  seeing  it, 
for  though  I  had  bought  a  long  rubber 
coat  in  Nagoya,  it  leaked  all  over,  the  wind 
turned  my  umbrella  inside  out,  and  then 
when  I  was  trying  to  turn  it  back  again, 
broke  the  handle  off  short.  Thus  I  was 
left  with  nothing  but  the  thinnest  kind  of 
summer  clothing,  and  that  wet  enough  to 
wring,  for  a  ride  of  thirty  miles  in  an  open 
kuruma,  in  a  wind  so  strong  that  the  ku- 
ruma  hoods  could  not  be  kept  up  at  all, 
when  we  started.  Fortunately,  a  wetting 
does  not  chill  one  in  this  climate  in  sum- 
mer. Even  when,  a  little  later,  the  wind 
died  down  enough  to  permit  the  raising 
of  the  kuruma  top,  the  rain  continued  to 
stream  down  our  faces  and  penetrate  to 
every  corner,  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to  keep 


A   WAYSIDE  INN.  255 

it  out,  so  that  bathing-suits  would  have 
been  more  appropriate  for  our  journey  than 
any  other  costume. 

I  had  made  an  effort  to  secure  very 
strong  men  for  the  trip,  as  it  was  a  long 
one,  and  must  be  taken  either  in  very  hot 
or  in  very  wet  weather,  for  these  are  the 
alternatives  in  Japan  in  August.  The  man 
of  whom  I  engaged  the  kurumayas  assured 
me  that  they  were  strong,  and  fully  equal 
to  making  the  trip  from  Nagoya  to  Nu- 
madzu  in  three  days  or  three  and  a  half.  I 
soon  saw,  however,  that  instead  of  having 
the  strong  men  I  had  bargained  for,  my 
smooth-spoken  friend  had  supplied  me 
with  exceptionally  weak  ones.  They  ran  in 
an  exhausted  way,  and  stopped  as  often  as 
possible  for  food,  water,  or  anything  else 
they  could  think  of.  At  noon  we  stopped 
at  an  ordinary  little  wayside  inn,  but 
0  Kaio  found  me  a  clean,  comfortable  room 
upstairs,  where  I  took  off  my  wet  things, 
and  she  dried  them,  a  small  spot  at  a  time, 
over  a  hibachi.  When  I  put  them  on  again 
they  were  quite  comfortable,  although  they 
had  a  rough-dried  appearance  that  was  far 
from  stylish.  We  ordered  lunch,  and  I 
trembled  somewhat  for  the  result,  remem- 


256  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

be  ring  the  tales  of  Miss  Bird  and  others 
about  the  horrors  of  food  obtained  at  ordi- 
nary Japanese  inns.  However,  instead  of 
horrors,  a  delicious  meal  of  egg  and  mush- 
room soup,  eels  and  rice,  daintily  served  in 
lacquered  and  porcelain  bowls,  made  its  ap- 
pearance, and  I  ate  with  a  vigorous  relish, 
for  I  had  an  early  breakfast,  and  lunch  was 
served  at  about  two  o'clock.  The  bill  for 
room,  fire,  and  food  for  twro  was  eighteen 
cents,  and  I  am  sure  that  nowhere  in 
America  can  the  same  amount  of  comfort 
be  obtained  for  less  than  a  dollar.  After 
that  meal  I  dismissed  all  idea  of  starvation 
along  my  journey,  for  this  was  only  a  lit- 
tle country  inn,  in  an  out-of-the-way  place, 
and  we  had  letters  from  our  Nagoya  hotel- 
keeper  to  all  the  first-class  hotels  along  our 
route. 

That  first  night  we  brought  up,  all  wret 
and  tired,  at  a  large,  clean,  comfortable  ho- 
tel in  the  small  city  of  Okazaki,  and  now  I 
will  give  you  a  somewhat  detailed  account 
of  our  stop  there,  so  that  you  may  know 
exactly  how  a  first-class  Japanese  hotel 
cares  for  its  guests. 

When  our  kurumas  stop  before  the  door, 
we  are    greeted  by  the  whole  staff  of  the 


A  PLEASANT  HOTEL.  257 

house,  some  coming  out  to  take  our  bag- 
gage, and  others  on  their  knees,  bowing 
their  foreheads  to  the  floor,  just  inside  the 
entrance.  This  cordial  welcome  on  the 
part  of  so  many  bright-faced,  well-dressed 
persons  makes  the  stop  at  its  beginning 
almost  like  a  home-coming,  and  is  very 
comforting  to  the  wet  and  weary  traveler. 
At  the  door  we  take  off  our  shoes,  and  then 
are  led  along  spotless,  polished  corridors, 
and  up  steep  and  shining  stairs,  to  a  large, 
airy  room,  with  fine  white  mats  on  the  floor, 
and  a  piazza  running  around  two  sides. 
On  our  way  to  the  stairs  we  pass  through 
the  kitchen,  which  is  always  in  the  front  of 
the  house,  and  we  can  stop  if  we  choose 
to  see  the  process  of  getting  supper,  and 
assure  ourselves  that  the  cooking,  like  all 
other  parts  of  the  hotel  service,  is  clean  and 
neat. 

Our  room  is  at  the  very  back  of  the 
house,  and  is  the  "  best  room  "  of  the  hotel. 
In  front  of  it  is  another  room,  equally  good 
to  my  uneducated  taste,  which  we  can  use 
if  we  like,  and  which  I  finally  decide  to 
sleep  in. 

Our  first  business  is  to  open  our  big 
traveling  baskets  and  take  out  our  thinnest 


258  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

kimonos,  then  to  array  ourselves  in  these 
loose  and  comfortable  garments,  so  that 
our  wet  clothes  may  have  a  chance  to  dry 
before  the  kitchen  fire.  Tea  is  brought 
and  cake,  and  these  have  a  cheering  effect. 
Pretty  soon  a  smiling  maid  appears,  drops 
on  her  knees,  bows  her  head  to  the  ground, 
and  presents  us  each  with  a  bath-gown, 
with  the  information  that  the  honorable 
bath  is  ready.  My  maid  convoys  me  down 
to  the  bath-room,  which  proves  to  be  a 
very  open  apartment,  one  side  consisting 
entirely  of  glass  sliding-doors  with  no  cur- 
tains. But  0  Kaio  is  equal  to  the  emer- 
gency, pins  up  kimonos  over  the  glass, 
darkens  the  room  by  putting  the  lamp 
under  a  bushel,  or  somewhere  where  it 
will  not  give  light  unto  all  that  are  in  the 
house,  and  discreetly  keeps  guard  over 
the  door  while  I  enjoy  the  refreshment  of 
the  hot  water.  Then  I  array  myself  in  the 
bath-robe,  which  serves  the  double  purpose 
of  a  garment  and  a  towel,  and  go  back  to 
my  room,  to  sit  around  on  the  floor  and 
rest  in  my  loose,  cool  garments  until  sup- 
per appears,  —  eels,  fish,  two  kinds  of  soup, 
rice,  tea,  and  pickles,  all  served  in  the  dain- 
tiest manner  possible.     When  this  is  fin- 


YASAKU'S  WEDDING.  259 

ished,  as  we  are  tired  and  must  start  by 
six  the  next  morning,  we  order  up  the  beds. 
Silk  futons  or  thick  quilts  are  brought  in, 
as  many  as  I  want,  and  with  these  and  my 
own  sheets  and  pillows  0  Kaio  makes  up 
as  comfortable  a  bed  as  any  one  need  ask 
for.  Her  own  bed  consists  of  one  quilt  be- 
neath her,  and  another  to  draw  over  her  in 
case  the  weather  turns  cool  (which  it  does 
not),  and  a  wooden  pillow.  A  large  mos- 
quito net  of  green  linen  is  hung  from  the 
four  corners  of  the  room,  and  under  this 
the  two  beds  and  their  occupants  are  safe 
from  the  ravages  of  the  peculiarly  small 
and  active  Japanese  mosquito.  There  do 
not  seem  to  be  any  fleas  in  this  hotel,  so  we 
sleep  peacefully  until  aroused  at  an  early 
hour  the  next  morning  by  the  opening  of 
the  shutters,  making  a  noise  so  like  thun- 
der as  to  set  poor  Bruce  off  into  a  paroxysm 
of  enraged  barking.  There  is  no  water  in 
our  room,  but  O  Kaio  takes  me  out  to  a 
neat  little  washroom,  not  quite  so  open  and 
public  as  the  bath-room  of  the  night  before, 
where  there  is  a  plentiful  supply  of  cold 
water  and  shining  brass  hand-basins. 

When  we   are  ready  for  it,  breakfast  is 
served,  —  two  kinds  of  soup,  rice,  and  fish, 


260  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

and  as  I  have  brought  coffee  with  me, 
0  Kaio  makes  me  a  cup,  an  addition  to 
my  breakfast  much  more  satisfying  than 
the  weak  tea  of  the  country.  Then  we  set 
forth  on  our  day's  journey,  prepared  to  en- 
joy whatever  may  turn  up. 

The  weather  has  cleared  in  the  night, 
and  it  seems  as  if  we  ought  to  make  good 
progress,  for  the  roads  are  neither  dusty 
nor  muddy,  and  the  air  is  fresh  and  pleas- 
ant after  the  storm.  But  we  soon  find 
that  our  "strong55  men  are  much  used  up 
by  yesterday5s  work,  and  at  last  one  gives 
out  altogether,  complaining  of  a  pain  in  his 
"  honorable  inside,'5  and  we  hire  a  puny- 
looking  man  to  take  his  place.  This  causes 
more  delay,  the  fact  that  our  new  man  is 
both  small  and  weak  delays  us  still  further, 
and  at  last,  about  noon,  the  new  man  gives 
out  and  can  travel  no  further.  We  stop 
for  lunch  at  a  pleasant  hotel,  and  there  I 
have  the  remaining  Nagoya  man  informed 
that  unless  he  can  find  a  good,  strong  man 
who  can  get  over  the  ground  faster,  I  will 
not  pay  the  extra  price  promised  for  extra 
strong  men.  As  a  result  of  this  threat,  he 
engages  a  quick,  muscular  fellow,  who  trots 
along  in  the  shafts  as  easily  as  a  pony ;  but 


A  POOR  HOTEL.  261 

then  it  becomes  evident  that  the  Nagoya 
man  is  about  used  up,  and  has  to  stop  every 
moment  for  repairs  of  one  kind  or  another. 
I  advise  him  to  let  me  hire  new  men  for 
the  rest  of  the  trip,  but  as  he  wants  the 
pay  for  the  whole  trip,  he  insists  that  he  is 
"  dai  jobu,"  and  goes  on,  although  he  is 
evidently  quite  tired  out,  and  keeps  calling 
to  the  fresh  man  to  go  slower. 

We  travel  on  in  this  way,  going  more  and 
more  slowly  every  mile,  until  at  last,  long 
after  dark,  the  kurumayas  dump  us  at  a 
dirty  little  hotel  in  a  little  village  by  the 
name  of  Maizaka.  Here  we  And  that  the 
good  rooms  are  all  taken,  and  at  first 
the  people  think  they  cannot  even  give  us 
a  shelter ;  but  our  men  are  too  tired  to  go 
any  further,  and  at  last  0  Kaio  discovers 
two  rooms  upstairs,  looking  out  on  the  vil- 
lage street,  in  which  we  take  up  our  abode. 
The  rooms  are  hot,  also  noisy,  also  full  of 
fleas,  but  we  resign  ourselves  to  the  inevi- 
table, and  send  for  our  supper,  which  tastes 
fairly  well,  though  I  do  not  feel  sure  of 
its  cleanliness,  as  the  whole  hotel  seems 
dirty.  We  have  the  beds  made  up  early, 
as  we  want  a  good  night's  sleep  before 
our  early  start.     We  go  to  bed  early,  but 


262  A   JAPANESE  INTEBIOB. 

the  village  does  not,  and  seems  to  be 
having  a  particularly  convivial  time  di- 
rectly under  our  windows.  There  is  much 
conversation  and  laughter,  together  with 
beating  of  drums  and  twanging  of  sami- 
sens,  which  effectually  prevents  my  getting 
so  much  as  a  cat-nap  until  after  twelve 
o'clock.  When  the  noises  stop,  I  do  man- 
age to  sleep,  but  am  awakened  at  half  past 
four  for  the  day.  Our  only  satisfaction  at 
this  place  is  in  the  bill,  which  proves  to  be 
only  sixty  sen  for  the  two  of  us,  whereas 
the  morning  before,  at  the  pleasant  hotel, 
it  had  been  one  yen.  However,  I  think  I 
would  rather  "  darn  the  expense/5  and  go 
to  one-yen  places,  than  pass  many  such 
nights  as  that  at  Maizaka. 

Numadzu,  August  27. 

I  have  been  here  now  nearly  four  days, 
but  must  go  back  and  finish  the  journey 
before  I  tell  you  about  my  present  abode. 
I  left  off  at  Maizaka,  from  which  place  we 
started  at  early  dawn  on  Thursday,  hoping 
to  reach  Numadzu  that  night.  However, 
when  we  came  to  Hamamatsu,  the  place 
where  we  should  have  passed  the  night 
had  our  kurumayas   been  smart,  we  dis- 


okitsu.  263 

covered  that  one  of  the  bridges  ahead  of 
us  had  been  blown  away  by  the  typhoon,  so 
that  seemed  a  good  occasion  for  getting  rid 
of  our  inefficient  man  by  taking  the  train 
as  far  as  Shizuoka.  This  arrangement 
seemed  agreeable  to  both  our  kurumayas, 
and  we  parted  on  the  best  of  terms.  Then, 
after  an  hour  of  rest  in  a  delightful  hotel, 
where  we  ought  to  have  spent  the  night, 
we  took  our  train  for  a  two  hours'  ride 
to  Shizuoka,  reaching  there  about  twelve. 
The  hotel  was  partly  in  foreign  style,  and 
they  gave  me  a  foreign  dinner,  with  a 
table  and  knives  and  forks,  the  first  I  had 
seen  since  leaving  Nagoya. 

At  three  o'clock  we  set  off  with  fresh,  fast 
kurumayas,  reaching  Okitsu  at  six.  Here 
we  found  a  comfortable  hotel  and  spent  the 
night.  Okitsu  is  quite  a  fashionable  wa- 
tering-place, with  fine  surf-bathing.  Prince 
Haru  had  been  spending  the  summer  at 
this  place,  but  had  just  left.  Here  I  found 
Japanese  friends  from  Tokyo,  who  gave  me 
a  cordial  welcome.  It  was  pleasant  to  hear 
some  English  again  after  my  days  of  con- 
finement to  Japanese,  for  though  I  know 
enough  to  procure  the  necessaries  of  life, 
there  is  very  little  else  that  I  can  do  with 
the  language. 


264  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOR. 

Friday  morning  we  started  early,  expect- 
ing1 to  reach  Numadzu  by  noon,  but  the 
typhoon  had  carried  away  another  bridge, 
and  we  had  to  go  several  miles  out  of  our 
way  and  then  cross  the  river  by  boat,  a 
course  which  delayed  us  several  hours. 
We  did  reach  Numadzu  at  last,  however, 
and  now  I  am  installed  in  a  small  room 
close  to  the  sea,  or  rather,  close  to  the  lit- 
tle hill-surrounded  bay  on  which  the  hotel 
stands.  It  is  a  lovely  place,  with  the  bluest 
of  water,  and  the  greenest  of  hills  sloping 
down  to  it.  I  am  living  out  of  doors, 
for  two  sides  of  my  room  are  taken  out 
entirely  during  the  day,  giving  me  not  only 
a  fine  view  of  the  water,  but  of  the  bath- 
house as  well,  into  which  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  hotel  enters  at  least  twice  a 
day.  The  guests  of  the  hotel  spend  most 
of  their  time  in  the  salt  water,  wearing 
every  description  of  garment,  and  fre- 
quently no  garment  at  all.  As  soon  as 
they  come  up  from  the  beach  they  take  a 
plunge  into  the  warm  bath  in  the  bath- 
house close  by  my  room,  so  that  there  is 
a  continual  splashing  there  from  half  past 
five  in  the  morning  until  nine  or  ten  at 
night,    and  a   constant  procession  by   my 


CHILDREN'S  VISITS.  265 

window  of  men,  women,  and  children.  I 
am  now  becoming*  so  used  to  the  noises 
that  I  can  sleep  after  they  begin  in  the 
morning,  and  can  go  to  sleep  in  the  midst 
of  them  at  night,  but  for  a  day  or  two  I 

found  it  rather  disturbing. 

August  28. 

Since  yesterday  I  have  moved  into  pleas- 
anter  and  more  retired  rooms  upstairs,  and 
am  now  rejoicing  in  a  chair  and  table  for 
my  writing,  instead  of  having  to  sit  on  the 
floor  and  write  on  a  tea-tray  on  my  lap,  as 
I  have  done  thus  far.  It  is  not  so  noisy 
as  it  was  below,  and  I  have  a  corner  where 
I  can  dress  secure  from  the  public  gaze ;  but 
I  rather  miss  the  procession  of  bathers,  and 
especially  the  companies  of  children  who 
used  to  stop  by  my  piazza  and  exchange  ideas 
with  ine  through  the  medium  of  a  little  Jap- 
anese and  a  great  many  smiles  and  bows 
and  pats  of  their  dainty  little  hands.  They 
are  so  delighted  to  see  me  wearing  Jap- 
anese dress,  and  sitting  on  the  floor  and 
eating  with  chopsticks,  that  they  are  very 
friendly  and  curious.  Yesterday,  I  had  a 
long  call  from  about  half  a  dozen  of  them. 
They  brought  me  a  paper  doll  as  an  offer- 
ing, and  came  in  and  sat  down  on  the  floor 


266  A  JAPANESE  INTERIOB. 

in  a  semicircle  around  me.  They  discov- 
ered, by  patting  and  poking  and  feeling  of 
me,  that  my  hands  and  my  face  and  my 
hair  were  soft,  and  thereupon  there  arose  a 
polite  contention  among  them  as  to  who 
should  sit  next  me  and  hold  my  hands, 
and  who  should  pat  my  hair,  and  who 
should  put  her  face  close  to  mine  and  rub 
it  gently  back  and  forth.  Then  they  tried, 
by  speaking  very  slowly  and  distinctly,  to 
make  me  understand  their  Japanese,  and 
were  greatly  delighted  when  I  did.  Jap- 
anese children  are  very  attractive  and 
pretty,  and  they  are  so  gentle  and  polite 
that  one  does  not  get  tired  of  them  as  one 
does  of  American  children. 

I  am  here  now  without  any  baggage 
beyond  what  I  could  carry  with  me  in  a 
kuruma,  for  though  I  sent  my  large  basket 
on  from  Kyoto  by  express,  and  expected  to 
find  it  waiting  for  me  here,  it  has  not  yet 
arrived,  and  I  am  growing  daily  more  des- 
titute in  the  matter  of  clothes.  I  wear 
Japanese  dress  all  the  time  in  the  house, 
but  find  it  very  inconvenient  for  walking, 
so  have  to  go  out  of  doors  in  a  rather 
mussed-looking  white  dress,  not  at  all  the 
thing  for  the  damp,  rainy  weather  we  are 


GOOD-BY.  267 

having.  There  is  no  laundry  nearer  than 
Yokohama,  so  I  cannot  have  anything1 
done  up  except  such  articles  of  clothing  as 
need  neither  starch  nor  iron. 

I  think  I  must  close  now.  This  will  be 
my  last  letter.  My  plans  for  the  rest  of 
my  time  are  to  leave  here  on  Saturday  or 
Monday  for  Tokyo,  and  to  stay  there  wher- 
ever I  can  find  an  abiding  place,  doing  up 
the  last  things  before  I  leave  the  country. 
If  all  goes  well,  I  hope  to  reach  San  Fran- 
cisco by  October  1,  and  so  good-by  until 
some  day  I  sail  in  at  the  Golden  Gate  and 
bid  you  all  good-morning. 


\V 


C 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 


3  1197  22926  5035 


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